At least 27 health workers from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) listed as medical reserve force in Eastern Visayas were deployed on Thursday as volunteers in hospitals to help treat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
The 20 medical staff from the PNP and seven from BFP have been assigned to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC), Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Hospital, and Divine Word University Hospital, all in this city.
The first batch of reserve medical workforce from the two agencies includes doctors, nurses, and medical technologists.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Inter-Agency Task Force against Covid-19 held the turnover at the EVRMC here.
“This was in response to the request of DOH to the partner agencies for augmentation of health manpower to the hospitals. DOH requested a total of 35 doctors, 20 medical technologists, and 169 nurses,” said DOH regional information officer Jelyn Lopez-Malibago in a phone interview.
The regional task force assured volunteers that they will be provided with their basic needs during their duty.
The medical reserve force will be working in their assigned hospitals for two weeks and will be allowed a two-week rest every month. They will be on duty until the number of Covid-19 cases can already be managed by permanent hospital staff.
DOH Regional Director Exuperia Sabalberino said during the ceremony said that Tacloban was tagged a priority for deployment since most of the medical facilities in the city have been experiencing a high rate of bad-capacity occupancy of coronavirus patients.
“Since last year, we started to come up with a worst-case scenario in the region. Members of the regional task force agreed that we should mobilize all resources in the region,” Sabalberino added.
As of June 17, Eastern Visayas has already recorded 25,466 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 2,193 active cases, 22,918 recoveries, and 355 deaths.
The health department reported 473 new cases, the second-highest new infections in a single day since the start of the pandemic. (PNA)
