Cebu to send 50 medical workers to help NCR+

CEBU CITY, Philippines—At least 50 medical workers from Cebu will be traveling to Metro Manila on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, to help the government’s respond to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak there.

A total of 11 doctors, 35 nurses, and four medical technologists are scheduled to depart from Cebu to Manila this Tuesday, said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health in Central Visayas spokesperson (DOH-7). 

These healthcare workers are from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) and DOH-7. 

“We will be sending them off tomorrow. They are scheduled to go to Manila at 3 p.m. on April 7,” said Loreche. 

DOH-7 has been hiring healthcare workers here to be deployed and help address the COVID-19 surge in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Loreche said they are planning to send more to NCR in the coming days as the region is need of around 100 to 200 nurses alone to help bring down the outbreak there to manageable levels. 

“Once they arrive there, they will be staying there for one month. DOH-7 will be shouldering their salaries,” she added.

In the meantime, Loreche assured the public that Cebu, and the entire Central Visayas for that matter, has enough hospital manpower to attend to COVID-19 situation here.

“Remember, our cases have already leveled off.  We do have sufficient manpower, sufficient enough that it won’t be a risk for us to send them to areas outside Cebu that are in need of our help,” she explained in a mix of English and Cebuano.

Read: Expert says Cebu’s COVID-19 situation less likely to end up like NCR

The entire Central Visayas remained under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), the most lenient form of community quarantine.

On the other hand, the greater Metro Manila, also tagged as NCR+, was reverted back to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), the strictest level, due to rapid transmission of the virus.  

/bmjo