BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The management of the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, Negros Occidental, is limiting its acceptance of patients, after some of its employees tested positive for Covid-19, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said yesterday.
Diaz said seven of the TLJPH administrative personnel and some members of their families were referred for isolation at the Mambukal Mountain Resort in Murcia, after contracting the virus.
Dr. Mary Ann Maestral, officer-in-charge of the TLJPH, in her letter to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, requested for approval of its plan that the hospital will accept only “emergency surgical operations” until further notice, due to the increasing number of its infected frontline staff members.
“We further request that the public be advised to coordinate with their Emergency Room Triage, or HOD (Hospital Operations Division) One Hospital Command, before the transfer of patients to our hospital, if extremely necessary,” Maestral said.
Diaz said that the request was already approved by Lacson, and took effect yesterday.
Maestral said that they are still in the process of contact tracing and disinfecting the affected areas in the hospital.
Meanwhile, more than 3,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine were distributed yesterday by the Provincial Health Office, through the Provincial Incident Management Team, to the 19 local government units of Negros Occidental.
Diaz said they are expecting the full utilization of 15,850 doses of Sinovac by concerned LGUs by July 19, with 15, 805 doses reserved for the second jabs to those inoculated.
The remaining 1,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine were utilized yesterday for employees assigned in various national government agencies, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he added.
Diaz also announced that 3,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, out of the 100,000 doses ordered by the provincial government of Negros Occidental, will arrive on July 15, and will be distributed to Bago City, Murcia, Talisay City, and Silay City.
As of July 2, a total of 101,553 Negrenses had availed of the first and second doses of Covid-19 vaccines, Diaz said.*
