ILOILO City – Two more doctors of St. Paul’s Hospital of Iloilo (SPHI) on General Luna Street contracted the virus SARS-CoV-2 which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), bringing to eight the total number of the hospital’s physicians who got infected.
Mayor Jerry Treñas said the two doctors were asymptomatic and were immediately quarantined at SPHI’s hostel where the six others were placed.
They were part of the 33 new cases that the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 confirmed yesterday and brought to 307 the total cases in Western Visayas.
On Sunday, six doctors of SPHI were found out to be carriers of SARS-CoV-2. They were the following:
* 31-year-old male from Jaro district (Patient No. 265)
* 29-year-old male from Mandurriao district (Patient No. 266)
* 29-year-old female from Jaro (Patient No. 267)
* 27-year-old from Oton, Iloilo (Patient No. 268)
* 42-year-old male from Jaro (Patient No. 269)
* 53-year-old male from La Paz (Patient No. 270)
On Sunday evening, SPHI went on lockdown and contact tracing was launched.
Treñas was unsure when the lockdown would lapse.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Juanico, head of the Infectious Disease Section of the Department of Health Region 6, said at least 144 close contacts have been swabbed for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing.
“Upon receipt of the information by the Iloilo City Health and St. Paul’s Hospital, the health facility instituted its contact tracing among those who were possibly exposed,” said Juanico during an emergency press conference Monday afternoon.
Here, Juanico confirmed that two more doctors of SPHI have contracted the viral illness.
During the emergency meeting, DOH-6 and management of SPHI agreed with the following guidelines:
* temporary suspension of services until disinfection/decontamination were carried out particular in emergency room and outpatient department and identified close contacts were all negative for RT-PCR test
* contact tracing has been initiated ( within and outside the hospital)
* continuation of other services will proceed provided IPC measures are in place
* logistics augmentation from DOH, Iloilo City and Office of the Civil Defense
* security provided by the ICPO
* healthcare waste management by Iloilo City
* food augmentation/PN
