Mayor gets emotional as infections surge

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas cannot help but worry as the alarming surge in cases of COVID-19 continues to overwhelm city hospitals.

In an emotional video released Thursday night, Treñas said he is alarmed by the onslaught of the pandemic in the city that is taking toll on hospitals.

“Indi lango-lango ang risgo kag balatian gani bilang isa ka amay, dako ang pagkabalaka ko sa aton nga tanan. Puno na gid ang mga hospital beds para sa COVID-19 kag mabudlay ini nga sitwasyon kon ini magpadayon,” he shared.

Treñas added that the continuous surge in cases has overwhelmed the city hospitals with some of their personnel already infected with the virus.

“All our hospitals are getting full, and many are on the waiting list. Personnel of three hospitals is infected already and they cannot operate at full capacity,” he said in a statement on Friday.

The city government already sought assistance from the Department of Health (DOH) to increase the COVID-19 dedicated bed capacity and augment the medical personnel.

“I hope DOH can look for the 90 plus nurses needed. We need to have more beds dedicated to Covid so that we can attend to more COVID positive patients. We are now experiencing a surge,” the mayor said.

The city government will also be hiring 30 nursing aides to be assigned to different hospitals.

As of Friday, the ten hospitals in the city recorded 195 Covid-19 admissions and 126 suspect cases, with 125 patients on the waiting list.

From May 26 to May 27, Iloilo City recorded two record-breaking additional COVID-19 cases with 101 new cases on Wednesday and 116 additional cases on Thursday. (ERS)