Councilor Nerissa Soon Ruiz, chairperson of the committee on health of the Mandaue City Council, says hospitals and isolation facilities of the city are not overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. | (file photo)
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Mandaue City, isolation facilities and hospitals are still not overwhelmed.
City Councilor Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, chairperson of the committee on health, on Monday, January 23, said they did not receive reports from the hospitals that they were already overwhelmed.
“Atoang hospitals are not overwhelmed. Wala pa ka kadawat og reports nga naghuot na or naay mga naglinya na,” said Ruiz.
(Our hospitals are not overwhelmed. We have not received reports that they are full there or there are people lining up there.)
She, however, is encouraging the public to always be careful and follow the health protocols.
Lawyer John Eddu Ibañez, executive secretary of Mayor Jonas Cortes, said the Mandaue City Isolation Center (MCIC) built at the old Cebu Northbus Terminal in Barangay Subangdaku only has 14 patients while the step down facility across the city hospital has 45 patients with some only having mild symptoms of the virus.
He said that the City Health Office assessed that the city had no severe COVID-19 cases.
As of January 23, Mandaue City has 1,545 COVID-19 active cases.
Ibañez said there would be no new admission at the MCIC because they had yet to repair the areas of the facility that had been damaged by typhoon Odette.
He, however, said that they would wait for the 14 patients there to recover and then fix the damaged portions so that they could again allow admissions to the facility.
Earlier, Dr. Ligaya Lakambini Dargantes, deputy chief of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, said as most of the cases were asymptomatic and with only mild symptoms of the virus, most of the patients were undergoing home isolation.
Despite this, Ibañez said the repair of the Norkis Park Isolation Unit, which was damaged by the typhoon was ongoing.
He said they target the repairs to be completed by the middle of February.
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