BACOLOD City – The Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) temporarily suspended operations of its three departments.
CLMMRH chief Julius Drilon disclosed that two nurses and four physicians of the facility tested positive of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
These healthcare workers, according to Drilon, were asymptomatic. Two of them are under home quarantine while the four have been isolated at the hospital’s quarantine facility.
Starting Thursday, the CLMMRH indefinitely suspended all its Out-Patient Department (OPD) services, based on the public advisory issued by Drilon.
The hospital also stopped any admission in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and the neonatal intensive care unit of the department of pediatrics until further notice.
Also, the Department of Surgery limited its admission to only extreme emergency cases until further notice.
The hospital management would like to thank the public for its usual understanding especially in this time of pandemic,” Drilon said.
The medical center chief also said they have already identified possible close contacts of the infected employees.
“We conducted risk stratification and isolated those classified medium to high risk [close contacts],” Drilon added.
Three of the four physicians were rendering duty at the Department of Surgery while the other one was assigned at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The two nurses were among the staff at the NICU.
The six confirmed cases were among the 85 hospital personnel and patients whose swab samples were collected on Tuesday.
In July, the CLMMRH, a Department of Health (DOH)-managed hospital, in partnership with the City of Bacolod, unveiled the first hospital-based Level 3 testing laboratory in the country to strengthen the local response to the Covid-19 pandemic. (With a report from PNA/PN)
