City of San Fernando, Pampanga—The Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital in Central Luzon was shut down due to lack of much needed medical supplies even as cases continue to spike with new cases involving six persons including the vice mayor of this capital city who personally admitted positive of the deadly disease on Sunday.
Vice Mayor Jimmy Lazatin admitted in a public statement that he is positive of the coronavirus after undergoing a Polymerase Chain Reaction test Saturday.
Lazatin, who is suffering from a minor cough but has no travel history outside the city for the last 14 days, has urged people whom he met during office hours to report immediately to the city health office for contact tracing and medical assessment.
Alvin Mendoza, a village leader of Alasas, also reported four COVID-19 cases from Havana Residence and La Primera subdivisions.
Lavernie Gopez, barangay captain of Bulaon reported a positive case in his area. Both Mendoza and Gopez are now conducting contact tracing to prevent the spread of the disease to other residents of their respective villages.
In a public statement, the general hospital and one of the seven designated by the Department of Health as health facilities will no longer accept Covid-19 patients as of July 22 instead they were urged to go to other hospitals for treatment.
The reason behind the temporary shutdown was the lack of hospital supplies like ICU, isolation, wards beds, face mask and others to treat patients as cases continue to spike coming from different local government units in the region.
Starting July 22, the “medicine ward of this hospital has reached its capacity due to lack of supplies which was the main cause of stopping admitting additional patients” the statement said. Instead,we urged the patients to seek treatment elsewhere in the region.”
However, the other operations of the government hospital remain open.
In his public policy declaration, Monserrat Chichioco, chief of the hospital, assured the public that all existing protocols, infection control guidelines and other issuances consistent with the Declaration of Public Health Emergency will be implemented to protect patients and health care workers.