THE Davao City Government will now be transporting confirmed Covid-19 patients to temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) using buses to avoid delays.
City Health Office (CHO) Acting Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said in an interview that the city will be acquiring two mini buses that will separately cater to patients in the northern and southern parts of the city.
Lopez said this is in response to reports that some mild and asymptomatic patients are not immediately transported to the TTMFs.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio confirmed this in her recent radio interview due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the city.
"Tungod sa kadaghan, duna gyuy delay sa pagkuha sa mga patients nga need og isolation (Due to the surge of cases, it is expected that there will be delays in transporting patients to the isolation facilities). Plus the fact na (that) because of a surge, tag hundreds sa isa ka adlaw ang ma-positive, duna puy kakulangan sa bed capacity sa TTMF (temporary treatment and monitoring facilities) (we have hundreds of daily positive new cases and it is expected that there is a possible shortage of bed capacities in our TTMF)" Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Lopez said they already requested additional reinforcement of the Rapid Action Team (RAT) mobile unit, including the purchasing of additional vehicles.
He said there is no need for them to transport patients to the TTMF using ambulances.
Lopez, meanwhile, apologized for the delays.
"Mangayo kog pasaylo ug pasensya para sa atong Covid-19 patients kay karon, dili na makaya ang 24 hours nga turnaround nga atong pag-extract ug pag-transport sa atong pasyente (I would like to apologize and ask for the patience from our Covid-19 patients because we cannot accommodate everyone in 24 hours, from the extraction up to the transport of patients)," Lopez said.
While waiting to be transported, patients are advised to self-isolate in a room.
Meanwhile, Lopez said based on the city's policy, confirmed cases are prohibited from home quarantine.
According to the DOH-Davao Region data as of June 2, Davao City has now reached a total of 2,013 active cases. Meanwhile, total cases have reached 17,528 wherein 14,754 have already recovered, and 761 died.
Lopez recently said the surge of cases in the city can be attributed to the emergence of the new variant. Although he said they are still awaiting the confirmatory report from the Philippine Genome Center.