Six doctors contract COVID-19

By Emme Rose Santiagudo and Jennifer P. Rendon

Six medical doctors in a private hospital in Iloilo City tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Mayor Jerry Treñas confirmed on Sunday.

The mayor said in a radio interview that the six doctors are affiliated with St. Paul’s Hospital in General Luna St. in City Proper district.

According to the mayor, the doctors were positive for COVID-19 based on the results of their real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.

“I was informed that six medical doctors in Iloilo are positive in RT-PCR test. I have coordinated with the medical director and they are doing all the necessary protocols to ensure the safety of everyone. Let us do everything to ensure the safety of everyone, be safe all my beloved Ilonggos,” he said in a statement posted in his social media page on Sunday.

Treñas said the six doctors have already been isolated and under quarantine.

In a statement, St. Paul’s Hospital said “We have always strictly complied with the Department of Health (DOH) directives to conduct Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing among all our healthcare workers.”

We have protocols and processes to address the results of the said tests. Positive results are managed and contact tracing is done by the SPHI COVID Task Force in accordance with government guidelines. Our protocols for infection control have always been in place and strictly followed. These are in accordance with accepted standards to address the COVID 19 pandemic to ensure the safety of everyone working, confined in or visiting the hospital.”

Based on radio reports, Treñas will be seeking a dialogue with the Department of Health-Center for Health Development Western Visayas (DOH-CHD 6) and the Office of the Civil Defense 6 to ask for advice on how to handle the hospital.

In its Case Bulletin No. 94, DOH-CHD 6 reported a record-breaking single-day spike in COVID-19 infections in Western Visayas with 26 new cases.

The new cases include five indigenous cases from Iloilo City – a 31-year-old male from Jaro district; a 29-year-old male from Mandurriao district; a 29-year-old female from Jaro district; a 42-year-old male from Jaro district; and a 53-year-old male from LaPaz District.

A 27-year-old female from Oton town in Iloilo province also tested positive for COVID-19.

DOH-CHD 6 has not yet confirmed if the six indigenous cases are also the six doctors from St. Paul’s Hospitals.

But Dr. Ma. Sophia Pulmones of the Department of Health-Region 6 confirmed that the six medical practitioners are included in the 26 new COVID-19 cases as of Sunday.

Pulmones said the health workers have “probable exposure to a suspect case.”

All of them are now under facility quarantine.

“There is an ongoing verification and validation on the local government unit because they do the contract tracing and validation,” Pulmones said.

She added that they could not tell for now the source of infection.

“That’s why we could say that it’s probable exposure to a suspect case,” she said.

Meanwhile, the other 20 new cases in Region 6 are:

-25-year-old male locally stranded individual (LSI) from San Dionisio

-28-year-old male OFW repatriate from Passi City, Iloilo

-39-year-old female LSI from City Proper, Iloilo City

-53-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-22-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-21-year-old male LSI from Bacolod City

-61-year-old male OFW repatriate from Bacolod City

-23-year-old female LSI from Himamaylan, Negros Occidental

– 24-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-48-year-old female LSI from Sibunag, Guimaras

-24-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-29-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-29-year-old male LSI from Bacolod City

-46-year-old female LSI from Bacolod City

-28-year-old female OFW repatriate from Pototan, Iloilo

-28-year-old male OFW repatriate from Zarraga, Iloilo

-27-year-old male LSI from Batad, Iloilo

-27-year-old male LSI from Zarraga, Iloilo

-31-year-old female OFW repatriate from Estancia, Iloilo

-28-year-old male LSI from Bacolod City

-28-year-old male LSI from Bacolod City

As of Sunday, COVID-19 cases in Western Visayas spiked to 274 with 138 active cases, 125 recoveries, and 11 deaths.