CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines — The entire medical staff of the surgery ward of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) made up of 31 individuals, and 8 patients of the hospital’s surgery ward were placed under isolation after a 21-year-old patient was tested positive of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) last Friday.
Aside from the hospital staff and patients, authorities also placed an entire team of the Cagayan de Oro Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) under isolation after they responded to a vehicular accident involving the 21-year-old patient.
Dr. Bernard Ochoa, NMMC medical specialist, said the 21-year-old male patient, a resident of Grand Europa Subdivision, was admitted to the hospital on April 19 after figuring in a motorcycle accident.
He said a USAR team brought him to the NMMC where he underwent surgery for his injuries.
Ochoa said the relatives of the patient transferred the male patient to a private hospital where doctors decided to give him a swab test when he developed pneumonia.
Last Friday, Ochoa said the test results came back, saying that the patient was positive of COVID-19.
He said the patient was transferred back to the NMMC last Saturday (May 2).
Ochoa said the 31 medical staff of the NMMC surgery ward was immediately put under isolation.
He said eight patients at the surgical intensive care unit of the NMMC, where the COVID-19 patient was brought after surgery, were transferred to the hospital’s anti-COVID-19 ward.
The 21-year-old patient is the fourth COVID-19 case in Cagayan de Oro and he is presently confined at the hospital./dbs