ILOILO City – West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) in La Paz district temporarily closed its outpatient department (OPD) yesterday. One of the government-run hospital’s healthcare workers was found infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“We apologize that our OPD service will be temporarily put on hold. However, it will resume operations once it is ready to serve the public,” part of WVSUMC’s statement read.
All personnel deemed at risk were swabbed, isolated and monitored. Areas affected were properly disinfected, it added.
While WVSUMC did not state the circumstances, the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 confirmed that a 53-year-old female health worker from Mandurriao district contracted the viral illness.
Patient No. 822, asymptomatic, was in isolation at a quarantine facility, according to Dr. Sophia Pulmones, head of the Local Health Support Division of the DOH-6.
The patient had contact with an 80-year-old man (Patient No. 679) from Barangay Bo. Obrero, Lapuz district, who died from COVID-19 last July 7.
The deceased elderly man also infected a 71-year-old woman and her 39-year-old daughter.
“Gina-consider ina sia (Patient No. 679) nga local case or ang source sang transmission is within the area,” Pulmones told Panay News.
She, however, disclosed that DOH-6 have yet to determine the patient’s source of infection as this was being written.
WVSUMC is the third hospital in Iloilo City to temporarily shut its department or portion of its wards after recording COVID-19 cases.
The June 28 lockdown of St. Paul’s Hospital of Iloilo on General Luna Street was the first, where 11 personnel got infected and eventually recovered from the disease.
The second was Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district. Three of the hospital’s personnel tested positive for COVID-19. They all recovered./PN
