AS OF July 15, 2020, a total of 56 health workers of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio revealed.
Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on Wednesday, July 15, that this was the latest figure she received from the hospital management.
The mayor was not able to give further details on the breakdown of the health workers’ status, including active cases and those who already recovered.
SPMC, currently, is the sole referral hospital in the city for Covid-19 patients.
The mayor said she had pushed to designate it as a referral center for Covid-19 patients since the first case was recorded in Davao Region in late March this year.
"Sa sugod pa lang gyud, akoa gyud to gi-push nga SPMC ang maging primary Covid-19 hospital diria sa siyudad sa Davao, because it is a government hospital (From the start, I had been pushing for the SPMC to be the primary Covid-19 hospital here in the city since it is a government-owned hospital)," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
With hospital staff being infected with the Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, this led her to donate her P2.1-million annual salary to SPMC health workers who are performing their duties.
Her salary was put as a trust fund, wherein each health worker will receive P50,000.
However, with the increasing number of workers getting infected, Duterte-Carpio revealed the trust fund is nearly depleting.
With this, she decided to reduce the amount to be given to each health worker to P30,000 during the second batch of distribution to accommodate everyone.
The mayor is still uncertain where to get additional funding once the trust fund is depleted.
"Di na nako kaya i-advance ako sweldo next year sa pagkakaron (I cannot request for a salary advance for now)," Duterte-Carpio said.
She also said she cannot utilize any funding from the government, without disclosing the reason.
The trust fund is separate assistance on top of the Department of Health’s (DOH) financial assistance, as provided by the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act.
SunStar Davao reached out to SPMC medical professional staff chief Dr. Ricardo Audan for further details but he has not yet responded as of this writing.
Audan said in a previous interview that the hospital has no issue with manpower since they have standby medical personnel in case some health workers are pulled out after contracting the virus to undergo self-quarantine.
Audan also revealed that some of their health workers have opted to resign from their post, as requested by their family members for fear of possible Covid-19 infection.
He cited that the families of the health workers requested them to leave their job because of the higher risk of infection associated with their job.
Despite this, Audan said the management respects their decision.
Duterte-Carpio, meanwhile, said the city government also respects their decision.
"They are within their rights to resign. We will not judge them," the mayor said, adding it is "perfectly" normal in a situation such as the Covid-19 pandemic.