DAVAO CITY - The Basilan Community Hospital, Inc (BASCOM) was temporarily placed under lockdown after five out of its seven employees, who were exposed to a patient positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), tested positive for the virus.
In a statement on Friday, Vina Vasquez, spokesperson of BASCOM said that, last July 28, a male patient from Barangay Diki was brought to the hospital after complaining of fever and cough.
“The patient was admitted in the isolation ward because he was considered a COVID suspect by the attending physician,” Vasquez added.
She said the patient was tested using rapid testing, he turned out positive for COVID-19 on July 30.
“So as per protocol, kinontact po natin agad ang CHO, at siya ay naswab din at nagpositive on July 30 (As per protocol, we contacted the City Health Office and he also underwent swab testing and tested positive on July 30),” she said.
Vasquez said all the health workers, including a doctor, four nurses and two utility workers who attended to the patient, were placed under home quarantine. She said five of these, including the doctor, three nurses and a utility worker tested positive after they underwent swab testing on August 3.
Vasquez said hospital management decided to place all the personnel under quarantine due to the number of personnel and staff who were exposed to the said health care workers.
“Dahil po maraming ibang staff and personnel ang na-expose sa ating health care and utility workers, nag decide po ang kumpanya na i-quarantine silang lahat sa BASCOM,” she said.
“This is the least we could do for them for their sacrifices. Nag-request din tayo from DOH for a temporary lockdown, which was approved yesterday (August 6),” she added.
Vasquez asked for the public’s understanding of the hospital’s decision to temporarily place the hospital on lockdown.
“We vow to continue our fight against this virus but allow us first to see that our infected staff have fully recovered, yung mga quarantined staff ay ma-swab at ma-gnegative at ma-disinfect namin ang facility,” she added.
The provincial government of Basilan said as of August 7, they have recorded 168 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 62 of which are active cases. It added that the province has so far recorded 105 recoveries and one death.