Councilor Joel Gargarnera, EOC deputy chief implementor of Cebu City EOC, says waiting line at hospitals continue to be a problem in the city . | Screen grab of Councilor Joel Garganera video
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) said that the waiting line for hospital remains a problem in the city.
This is despite a drop in the hospital occupancy rate to 69 percent after weeks of averaging at 75 percent.
The EOC said the waiting line in hospitals was still a problem for those in need of medical care which was why they appealed to the public to be more careful when going or working outside to avoid transmission of COVID-19.
Recently, an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) with pre-existing cancer died in a hotel isolation facility in Cebu City. In a report by GMA broadcast, the OFW was denied requests for hospital transfer due to a lack of available rooms.
The OFW was set to go home after multiple denials of her request, but she died in the hotel isolation facility, instead. She died on August 20, 2021, on the day her quarantine was supposed to end.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said that it would provide help to the family while the Department of Health (DOH) also promised to investigate the incident.
“We are saddened by this news and we extend our condolences to the family. As for the EOC, this matter is solely within the jurisdiction of OWWA and the DOH since this involves an OFW so we can only wait for the result of their investigation regarding this matter.
“However, I must admit that there are still queuing in our hospitals especially that patients still have to undergo triage. This is why it is important for us to really be mindful in everything we do because the increase of COVID-19 patients in hospitals would surely directly impact and contribute to the delay of providing services to non-COVID patients,” said Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC.
The EOC said that the active cases in the city have been slightly down but mostly the cases have plateaued in the past 5 days, with 4,617 cases as recoveries begin to catch up with the newly reported cases.
He said still, the number of active cases posed a challenge for the city as isolation centers struggled to house active cases and hospitals were still full of waiting patients.
The EOC hopes the number of cases will continue to go down so that the death cases will also go down. As of August 26, 2021, the death toll of the city is at 226 for August 2021 alone.
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