Davao private hospitals now accepting COVID-19 patients

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — At least four private hospitals in Davao City have been allowed to accept COVID patients after close to 1,000 health workers at the Southern Philippines Medical Center tested positive for the virus.

The SPMC is the main COVID referral hospital in Southern Mindanao as it accepts not only patients from Davao City, but also from other areas.

The four hospitals allowed to treat COVID cases are the Davao Doctors’ Hospital, Brokenshire Hospital, San Pedro Hospital and Metro Davao Medical and Research Center Inc.

SPMC chief Ricardo Audan told The STAR over the weekend that 981 health workers contracted COVID during the surge in the cases at the start of January.

The infected health workers were part of the 5,900 employees of the SPMC, Audan said.

Of the affected health workers, 75 percent deal directly with COVID patients such as doctors, nurses and attendants.

The remaining cases belong to the administration section such as janitors and orderlies.

“There really is a shortage of hospital workers at the SPMC,” he said.

To address the shortage, Audan said the quarantine and isolation period of the hospital staff was shortened to five days.

“What is good with this surge is that we have mild cases, making us hopeful,” Audan said.

He said the infected health workers were fully vaccinated and had booster shots.

“Of the total number, only 30 were symptomatic and the rest are mild and asymptomatic. Most of them are on home isolation or quarantine, which gives us hope we could better address the needs of those who have been hospitalized,” Audan said.

He said he had asked COVID-19 task force chief implementer Carlito Galvez for augmentation to address the shortage in health workers.

“We could possibly ask from the Armed Forces of the Philippines or the Philippine National Police,” Audan said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health recorded an additional 1,342 new cases in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) yesterday.

The new cases brought to 462,741 the total number of confirmed cases in the region.

Of the total cases, 27,539 are active while 422,285 have recovered including 2,071 newly reported recoveries.

Seven new deaths were recorded, bringing the total number of COVID-related fatalities to 12,917.

Among the provinces in Calabarzon, Cavite posted the highest number of cases with 15,312. It was followed by Laguna with 117,633 and Rizal with 81,544. – Mayen Jaymalin