The emergency room of the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC) in Manila has been temporarily closed for a week after eight hospital staff tested positive for the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), an official announced on Tuesday.
Dr. Ted Martin, GABMMC director, told reporters in a text message that he already informed the Manila City government that they close the emergency room from 7 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28 to 7 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5, for disinfection and to isolate patients.
“Kung hindi i-shutdown ang ER, magkakahawa-hawa, maraming mahahawa. We don’t want the whole hospital to be contaminated,” he said.
The hospital director said four doctors, two nurses, a medical technologist, and a radiology technologist of the hospital were asymptomatic when they tested positive for the disease.
Around 50 health workers at the GABMMC emergency room underwent swab testing and were told to undergo a three-shift rotation.
Martin also said that they are doing routine testing for symptomatic patients and asymptomatic health workers.
However, he said they could have immediately isolated the infected staff had their COVID-19 test results been given to them faster. He said they had to wait up to a week before they received the test results.
GABMMC’s outpatient services and dialysis center will remain operational to cater to its existing patients.
The hospital director said they moved to close the emergency room instead of the whole GABMMC to prevent other hospitals from being overloaded with patients.
GABMMC caters to around 400 dialysis patients per day and has around 700 hospital staff, Martin said.
Martin said they are coordinating with the five other district hospitals in Manila to transfer some of their patients.
Recently, the city government assigned Sta. Ana Hospital to handle COVID-19 patients.
Ospital ng Tondo, Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital, and Ospital ng Sampaloc will cater to children and pregnant women while Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center was assigned to handle internal medicine, neurology, and cardiology matters. GABMMC handles trauma, surgery, and hemodialysis cases. (Minka Tiangco)