BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – City disaster czar Jose Maria Vargas said the city has not yet reached a critical point as the critical care facility for COVID-infected patients at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital was ordered shut down after 29 of its medical staff reportedly tested positive for COVID.
“We are not yet at a critical level,” Vargas told DNX amid reports that 29 members of the CLMMRH staff, nurses and doctors included, tested positive for COVID.
Vargas, who had been running the disaster operations here since quarantine measures swung into effect mid March, said the city still maintains other isolation facilities for COVID patients with mild to moderate conditions
The government-owned CLMMRH is a tertiary-level hospital here that has 15 isolation facilities for moderate to critical cases.
Physician Ma. Carmeli Gensoli told DNX there are still private hospitals here with COVID-care facilities that could accomodate patients.
Those who cannot afford private hospital care however, will be referred to a government facility in Cadiz, a city about 54 kilometers north here.
Gensoli told DNX there are still ready isolation centers here, echoing the assurances of Vargas.
Aside from CLMMRH, other private hospitals here are the Riverside Medical Center, the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, the Doctors Hospital, Bacolod South Bacolod General Hospital, Metro Bacolod Hospital and Medical Center, and the Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital.
The local government here jointly runs a COVID-care facility with the Bacolod Queen of Mercy in one of the hospital’s wings.
