Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. apologized to the British government after a Briton died while being made to wait in an ambulance for eight hours in a hospital in Cebu.
Locsin said the British national, who was turned away by a hospital, was referred to another hospital where he was made to wait in an ambulance.
“He never complained; got cardiac arrest; doctors didn’t help. He died. Shame. Abject apologies to UK,” Locsin posted on his Twitter account.
He said he was informed that the hospital, which supposedly turned the Briton away, was “filled to the rafters” with coronavirus patients.
“To the UK ambassador: to be fair the hospital Ching Hua—one of the best in the country—says it is filled to the rafters with the infected grossly undercounted by the city [government],” Locsin said.
“Our president put the city in extreme quarantine. And it’s not working. Little or no cooperation.”
On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte placed Cebu City back under Enhanced Community Quarantine, the most stringent quarantine classification, until the end of June.
As of June 18, Cebu City had 4,137 cases but only 2,078 were active. It also recorded 58 deaths and 2,001 recoveries.
