Part of Sara’s salary goes to Covid patients
THE Davao City government has released a portion of the one-year salary of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio of P1.3 million for a trust fund of Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) health workers who had contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Duterte-Carpio This was the to commitment help the SPMC of health workers, who have been at the frontline of the coronavirus response as she said she felt accountable for the frontliners for assigning the SPMC the lone hospital to receive patients positive of Covid-19.
She committed her one-year salary of P2.1 million to the trust fund. The mayor said a total of 28 health workers in the SPMC would receive P50,000 each.
Of the number, 26 already received the assistance. In an earlier statement, Dr. Ricardo Audan, the chief of the SPMC Medical Professional Staff, said as of May 21, 2020, a total of been Of 1,661 the tested total hospital for number the employees coronavirus. tested, had 13 doctors, seven nurses and six administrative staff have been found positive of the disease. The Davao City mayor said she hoped that there would be no additional cases of SPMC health workers getting exposed to the virus. When asked on the resignation of health workers at the state-run hospital for fear of being exposed to the coronavirus, Duterte-Carpio said it was normal for the employees to think of their welfare especially for those who have families.
“Katong mga naghuna-hunanga mag- resign, they are well within their right ngamag- decide mo- resign. Nobody will judge them, nobody will think anything nga daotansailaha because perfectly normal gyudna. Siyempre nahadlok sila sa ilahang exposure especially katong mga tao nga pag mouli very vulnerable nga matakdan. Those who are thinking of resigning, they are well within their right to decide (Nobody will judge them, nobody will think anything wrong about them because it is perfectly normal. Of course, they are afraid to get exposed especially if they have family members who are vulnerable and can get exposed),” she said.
Meanwhile, an increase in daily testing capacity is seen in the coming days with accreditation of a private testing facility for Covid-19 in the city.
The Davao City One World Diagnostic Center Inc. is the latest private testing facility accredited for coronavirus patients.
The other is the SPMC, which currently has a daily testing capacity of 250 to 300 individuals. Johann Go, sales representative of the diagnostic center, said the center could accommodate 200 tests per day as they are still waiting for an RT-P CR—reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction — machine to be delivered.
“When the [ other of such] machines are here, we can accommodate between 1,000 and 1,200 tests per day,” he added. On Monday’s broadcast of the Davao City Disaster Radio, the Davao City mayor said the private facility has passed the five-stage accreditation by the Department of Health (DoH) and is now operational.
“Duha na kabuok ang ato ang Stage 5 meaning, pwede na ni sila mag- operate. Ang isa is ang SPMC, maoniangsa sinugdanan pa lang, and dunay nadungag ang Davao One World Diagnostic Center Inc. (We already have two that are in Stage 5, which means that they can start their operation. One is the SPMC, the one that we have from the beginning, and the newest addition, Davao One World Diagnostic Center Inc),” she noted.
Duterte- Carpio said two other facilities, the Davao Doctors Hospital and DoH Tuberculosis Center, are in the third stage of accreditation. The city- owned Los Amigos Health Center is waiting for approval of its permit to construct its testing facility, which is eyed to be operational July this year. In addition to greater testing capacity, Davao City has also 11 isolation facilities — nine for Covid- 19 patients and two for health workers to be quarantined. Overall, the city has a bed capacity of 448 for Covid-19 patients, of which 348 are occupied. As of June 1, Davao City had a total of 148 active positive cases of Covid-19 while 129 had recovered and 29 had died.