Doctors, drones sent to Cebu

THE government and the military will send dozens of doctors and nurses to Cebu City to help overwhelmed medical workers there attend to the rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients, the Department of Health said on Sunday.

Drones have also been deployed to help authorities monitor the implementation of quarantine protocols.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said among those to be deployed were rural doctors.

“Following reports of Center for Health Development Director [Jaime] Bernadas that the Cebu City healthcare system is overwhelmed with patient load at the moment, Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd issued

a directive to deploy doctors, including doctors to the barrio,” she told reporters in a text message.

The Health department said it would deploy 10 physicians in four batches.

The first batch will arrive on June 30 to July 13, the second batch on July 13 to 26, the third on July 25 to August 8 and the last batch on August 10 to 22.

“The doctors will not be permanently deployed in Cebu City, but will only provide relief similar to previous temporary assignments, i.e, [during] Marawi [siege] and [Super Typhoon] ‘Yolanda,’” Vergeire said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday sent off a medical team of its own to Cebu City to assist medical frontliners there.

The medical team is composed of nine military doctors, 10 nurses and 13 medical aides.

As of the Saturday, Cebu City had 4,831 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

An infectious disease expert said the situation in Cebu was “reminiscent” of Metro Manila, which also saw a surge in cases from March to early April.

Edsel Maurice Salvana, molecular biologist and infectious disease physician, said Cebu could learn from Metro Manila’s experience.

“Testing gradually picked up. It looked bad early on, but slowly but surely, with everyone’s help, things started to improve,” he added.

As of Sunday, the bed capacity of Cebu City was 75 percent full in comparison with Metro Manila’s 58.5 percent.

“To be sure, there were missteps as we continue to learn, but things for now are stable. Cebu needs to take a page from those early lessons,” Salvana said.

Vergeire admitted that doctors are most needed in Cebu City.

“Covid-19 cases have reached

a critical point in Cebu City and the Department is grateful to those who have risen to this patriotic call,” she said.

Meanwhile, LtGen. Guillermo Eleazar, commander of the Joint Task Force Covid Shield and concurrent Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for operations, bared that 11 drones were deployed in Cebu City to monitor the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine there.

“The purpose of drone deployment is that if ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) violations are observed in a particular area, troops will be immediately sent there to enforce the quarantine rules,” he said in a statement.

The PNP also sent 150 Special Action Force commandos to help enforce ECQ measures in Cebu City.