DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 March) – A total of 12 persons under investigation (PUIs) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are confined in the state-run Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City and the Davao Region Medical Center (DRMC) in Tagum City as of Friday night.
The SPMC listed eight PUIs and the DRMC four, according to Dr. Annabelle Yumang, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH).
Dr. Ricardo Audan, SPMC chief of clinics and health emergency, said the PUIs came from different private hospitals in Davao City and were referred to the SPMC for isolation.
Audan said that of the eight PUIs, five are from Davao City, one is an Australian national, one from Davao Occidental and one from Davao del Sur. The results of the test done on the Australian yielded negative, he said.
The SPMC is converting two intensive care units (ICUs) into extension facilities of their isolation area after seeing a growing number of patients who are being confined in SPMC as PUIs.
He said ICU1 could hold eight patients while ICU 2 could accommodate 13 at one time.
Patients who are already confined at the ICU for other ailments would be temporarily transferred to the SPMC’s Heart Institute, where they would continue to receive treatment.
He said they would also tap other resident doctors from different clinical departments to provide reinforcement to the frontline health workers who are doing initial assessment of patients who manifest symptoms of the COVID-19.
He said the hospital uses the decision tools to classify PUIs such as presence of any symptoms of the disease like cough, fever, and difficulty of breathing; traveled to restricted countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases; or had direct contact with patients positive for COVID-19.
He said at least 34 patients, mostly doctors who attended a convention in Manila, consulted with SPMC on Thursday. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
