BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia expressed gratitude to Malacañang for responding quickly to the urgent call for help of the city government here in its battle against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“In only a matter of hours, Malacañang responded to our appeal,” Leonardia said in a video message on Sunday.
On Aug. 25, Leonardia sent an urgent letter of appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte, requesting him to send to this city an augmentation team of 150 nurses, 20 doctors and 30 medical technologists as an “emergency stop-gap measure” amid the lack of medical personnel in hospitals here.
The rising COVID-19 cases have taken a toll on this city’s health care system, the mayor said.
Two days later, Environment secretary Roy Cimatu, who led the special mission in Cebu, arrived in this city together with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino and retired Major General Melquiades Feliciano, deputy implementer of COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force-Visayas, to discuss with Leonardia and other city officials ways to address the COVID-19 situation here.
On Aug. 28, a 12-member medical team of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), including two doctors, four nurses and six aides, arrived here for deployment to two private hospitals through the assistance of Lieutenant General Roberto Ancan, chief of the Central Command.
One team, comprised of one doctor, two nurses and three medical aides was dispatched to Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (Riverside Medical Center) while the other was assigned to the Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital.
In a statement, Captain Lizah Doroa, leader of the medical team, urged residents of this city to cooperate with authorities by observing safety precautions and reporting cases to the city government.
As of Saturday night, this city has 1,108 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 20 deaths. A total of 624 are active cases while 464 have recovered.
For three days, from Aug. 27 to 29, some 4,384 residents of this city were swabbed during the “O-Plan: One-Time Big-Time Mass Testing” program held in partnership with the Negros Occidental provincial government. (With a report from PNA/PN)
