AMID the worsening cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Bacolod, an additional 20 nurses and 20 vaccinators will be deployed in the city as augmentation of the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF).

Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical data and analysis of EOC-TF, said Thursday, October 7, that the 20 nurses were hired by the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas.

All of them will be deployed to various hospitals in the city, he said.

Aside from the 20 nurses, he said the DOH-Western Visayas also provided 20 additional vaccinators for the Negros Occidental capital city.

Sorongon said the augmentation personnel will arrive here anytime this week.

The EOC-TF also asked for additional healthcare workers including doctors from Cebu and the Philippine Army.

The EOC-TF earlier asked the assistance of DOH-Western Visayas to send 50 more healthcare workers for augmentation as the city battles a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Sorongon said most of the hospitals in the city are no longer accepting patients infected with Covid-19.

He said some hospitals already reached the maximum bed capacities for Covid patients, while others lacked manpower to take care of the patients.

The management of Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH), in a statement, earlier admitted that for the first time in the last 18 months of addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, the government-run hospital is highly challenged with the current surge in cases.

The hospital management added that it is also temporarily suspending admission even for non-Covid patients until further notice.

The same with Riverside Medical Center Inc. (RMC) as they earlier announced that they will temporarily stop admitting Covid-19 patients and those who are exhibiting symptoms of the disease.

The hospital stressed that they have the equipment but do not have sufficient workers to take care of the patients.

As of Thursday, October 7, Bacolod City had a total of 20,300 cases of Covid-19 with 508 casualties.

Of the total number of infections, 18,283 have already recovered and 2,187 are still active cases.