THE Department of Health (DOH) Cordillera, head of the Regional Inter Agency Task Force on corona virus Covid-19 asked the public to not entertain unofficial information.
The plea was made after social media went wild on reports the region has positive cases of the Covid-19.
DOH-CAR director Amelita Pangilinan stressed the Cordillera is still Covid-19 free with persons under investigation (PUI) cases now at 42.
“In our March 12, 2020 CoViD-19 medical update, we have monitored a total of 42 commutative PUI cases in the region with 12 admitted and 30 discharged. Out of the 12 admitted, 4 individuals turned negative with 2 coming from Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, 1 from Notre Dame De Charges Hospital and 1 from Pines City Hospital,” Doctor Pangilinan said.
At present, the Regional breakdown of PUI consists of five in Baguio City, five in Benguet and two in Abra Province.
“The number of PUI cases is actually increasing which is favorable to us because it shows that our surveillance is working and the said individuals are responsible enough to seek consultation to prevent their relatives and friends from being infected. We remind the public not to entertain unconfirmed and unofficial reports regarding CoViD-19 because it is only the DOH who will know who are to be categorized as PUI’s and PUM’s, misinformation on social media is sowing panic. In fact we had a report of an alleged American National who was at Buscalan and was sent to Bontoc Gen. to confirm which turned out to be negative and is considered as fake news,” the Regional Health Director stated.
At the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) Medical center Chief Doctor Ricardo Runez explained that as instructed by the DOH Central Office is have stopped admitting private patients in the said hospital to give way for patients to use the private rooms in case the health facility will be receiving more PUI’s.
“We have set-up our triage area at the entrance of BGHMC so that we are ready for the PUI patients so that they would not have to come inside the hospital and mix with other patients. So starting at the triage area, we would now identify the disposition of a patient wether they would be given masks or swabs and others, of course our set-up at the infectious disease area is ready with the isolation rooms ready,” Runez said.
The Medical Center Chief explained that despite BGHMC identified as one of the sub-nationwide referral Center for testing for CoViD-19 having the appropriate machines, it’s still has to await the testing kits or the reagents which is to be distributed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine or RITM.
The standard time of result for patients being tested for CoViD-19 is at 48, 34 and 40 hours after the specimen would have been forwarded to RITM. But once the testing kits will have been given to BGHMC, it is expected that the said health facility will be able to release the results within 2 hours upon receipt of a patient’s sample specimen for testing.
Doctor Paul Quitiquit, Medical Chief of the Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart have declared the said health facility to be on lock down as a measure to prevent the possible spread of CoViD-19 within the hospital.
“Our hospital have been preparing for this virus by having several meetings together with our infectious control committee since last week like what BGH is now doing and asa result of this, we have now came up with a concrete action plan. We already have a triage area same as that of BGH wherein everyone entering the hospital will have to pass through, this is where we try to separate patients that area having symptoms related to this virus. The advisory that we want to tell the public is that we are not accepting visitors into the hospital except for watchers for the patients, those with emergencies, those who are afflicted, those going to the laboratory and our employees. The hospital is now on lock down in such a way that there is only one entrance going inside the hospital except for the emergency exits,” Quitiquit added.
In Baguio City, a total of 16 health facilities are on alert to respond to CoViD-19 related cases as identified by the City Health Office. (Jonathan Llanes)