The Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital in Jagobiao, Mandaue City.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — It was a usual busy morning at the Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital in Jagobiao, Mandaue City on Tuesday morning, February 4, 2020.
Patients and their companions line up at the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the hospital waiting for their turn to be checked.
Despite the business as usual atmosphere, patients, as well as residents living near the hospital display mixed reactions upon learning that Eversley is one of the quarantine sites identified for passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong, and Macau amid the 2019 novel coronavirus alert.
A woman chanced upon by CDN Digital in the hospital hesitated to talk to staff or to ask for directions.
The woman said she was just looking for the right office where birth certificates can be claimed.
“Makuyawan man pod ta uy kay naa man guro ni virus [diri] (This makes me anxious because there might be a virus here),” said the woman before turning away to look for the right office.
Dennis Adlawan, an administrative officer in the hospital, however, assured their patients that the quarantined persons are not mixed with the regular patients.
“Dili sila dapat mahadlok because everything is being taken care of. We ensure that dili sila kagawas and they have their own agianan [when they are brought in],” Adlawan told CDN Digital.
(The patients should not be afraid because everything is being taken care of. We ensure that those under quarantine cannot go out and that they have their own passageways.]
Watch interview here:
Adlawan added that the hospital has also formed a team of seven medical personnel who will only attend to those under quarantine.
Adlawan, however, said he has no clearance to divulge the number of persons that are now under quarantine in their facility.
He said the quarantine team is solely dedicated to the quarantined persons and are not allowed to attend to regular patients.
Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital has a daily average count of 180 to 210 admitted patients, 200 to 250 outpatients and 100 to 120 patients brought to the emergency room.
The hospital also services an average of 400 to 450 deliveries per month or 13 to 15 mothers giving birth in one day.
Danilo Basay, a motorcycle for-hire driver in the area, admitted that he and some of his neighbors were afraid when they knew that the hospital will host the quarantined passengers.
Basay, who drive patients and personnel going to and from the hospital every day, however, said he trusts that the doctors in the hospital will keep the quarantined patients away and that their presence will not cause harm to the residents in the area.
“Naay daghan nahadlok. And uban nakasabot, ang uban wala. Siyempre virus baya na, natural ra sa tawo nga mahadlok pero imposibli man pod nga dalhon na sila diri unya isagol. I-quarantine gyud na sila,” Basay told CDN Digital.
Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital stands right across residences in Sitio Lourdes in Barangay Jagobiao.
Jun Crave, who owns a sari-sari store across the hospital, also said he understands that the persons who were brought in the hospitals are not nCoV positive but are only under quarantine.
“Wala ra man. Di man gyud na ingon nga positive kay gi-obserbahan ra man na sila,” 44-year-old Crave said. /rcg