THE Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) is bracing for the impacts of the general community quarantine (GCQ), which is expected to spur more coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases.
The City Government issued Executive Order (EO) 33 relaxing the quarantine rules and partially opening the city’s economy but the movement of people remains regulated under GCQ. It will take effect from 12:01 a.m. on May 16, 2020 to 11:59 p.m. on May 31, 2020.
Under the EO, curfew hours and use of the Food and Medicine (FM) pass remain in place under the GCQ. However, the clustering system has been lifted.
SPMC chief Dr. Leopoldo Vega said they have prepared measures to ensure the delivery of medical services with the potential spike of respiratory infection in the city and in the region.
“We have prepared more beds for Covid-19 and we are also scaling up the testing by acquiring another RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) machine,” Vega said, adding that the machine was donated by the San Miguel Corporation which will arrive next week.
SPMC recently acquired a total of 16,000 RT-PCR test kits, which is the gold standard in detecting the presence of viruses with a more accurate result, from National Task Force Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr.
While some rejoiced for the transition of the city to GCQ, the decision of the government was also welcomed with uncertainty and fear by the public who think that the pandemic situation here might worsen.
At present, there are a total of 12 quarantine centers with 530-bed capacity in Davao City ready to cater to suspected, probable, and infected Covid-19 patients.
In the Regional Situation Update on Covid-19 in Davao Region as of 5 p.m. on May 16, the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Center for Health Development registered one new case of Covid-19 in Davao City bringing the total number of cases in the region to 198.
There were also eight new recoveries in Davao City, making the total number of recoveries in the region to 108.
In Davao City alone, there are now a total of 176 reported Covid-19 cases with 92 recoveries and 22 deaths.
Duterte-Carpio said the City Government of Davao is also processing the accreditation of five laboratory testing centers in the city to enhance the capacity of the city in detecting positive patients.
These are tuberculosis laboratory in DOH Davao compound, Davao Doctors Hospital, Brokenshire Hospital, Detoxicare Davao One World Diagnostic Center Inc., and Davao City Health Office Laboratory in Los Amigos.