DUE to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said there are some delays in transporting confirmed Covid-19 patients to temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs).
This was one of the challenges the mayor cited during her radio interview on Monday, May 31, following the recent surge of 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.
The mayor said she already instructed the city’s health response group that there is no need to pick up patients using ambulances.
“There is no need to pick them up one-by-one since positive naman na sila tanan (they are already positive). So we could use bigger vehicles to pick up positive cases,” Duterte-Carpio said.
For more than a year since the pandemic, the mayor said they are still encountering the same challenges in its Covid-19 response.
She also said some patients refused to be taken to the isolation facilities.
She also said some patients wanted to choose a specific facility for him/her to be isolated, while some refused to be taken because they do not believe they are positive with the virus as they are asymptomatic or do not manifest any symptoms linked to Covid-19.
“In that case, dili na ta makiglalis sa pasyente (we won’t argue with them). We immediately refer them to DOH [Department of Health],” Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor also said that some patients are hard to find as they do not “truthfully” provide their accurate contact details and address.
"Duna pud tay pasyente nga di na makita. Lahi ang address, lahi ang contact number (We have some patients that are nowhere to be found. The address and contact number are different), and when you access the address and contact number, wala na didto ang tao (they are no longer there)," she said.
The mayor also revealed that there is also a delay in the contact tracing. Among the factors for this is test results come out after three to four days.
The mayor also added that they are having a hard time reaching out to close contact individuals.
Currently, the city has three testing centers: Davao Doctors Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center, and Davao One World Diagnostic Center.
But she said the city is adding two more testing centers. These include the co-managed testing machines at Brokenshire Hospital and Los Amigos Molecular Laboratory.
"Mas maayo kung mas daghan ang testing na mabuhat sa isa kadlaw para paspas makit-an dayon ang mga positive (It would be best if we get to test more individuals in a day so we could immediately detect those positive individuals), because the mayor you do your test, the more ka duna makita na positive (we get to detect more positive individuals)," Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor recently said the city is targeting to test a minimum of 1,000 tests per day.