BY CRIS DIAZ
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: More than 28 medical personnel, mostly nurses and attendants, of the state-owned Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) here were found positive of COVID 19 virus, hospital authorities said Tuesday.
The medical personnel were found positive of the virus just as the national Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) for the management of emerging and infectious diseases placed this city under Alert Level 1 effective March 1,2022 to March 16, 2022.
The NMMC health personnel had already booster jabs, but they blamed excessive exposure as the culprit that led to contracting the deadly COVID 19 virus.
Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha, the designated spokesperson and NMMC’s medical specialist, admitted that the nurses were on a two-month straight duty in the hospital’s COVID 19 enclosure wards.
The nurses and other medical personnel were sent to the NMMC managed emerging and infectious diseases rehabilitation isolation center in the city’s outskirt village, 10 kilometers southwest of here.
In a talked with Mindanao Daily News, Rocha asked for understanding because the NMMC, the only COVID 19 referral hospital in Northern Mindanao is grossly undermanned.
“The hospital is stretching and maximizing its personnel that even doctors have to render 24 to 48-hour duty to be able to address the medical needs of hospital admissions, especially COVID 19 positive patients,” Rocha said.
He said that the hospital was hiring more nurses and medical personnel, but their appointments were on hold pending the release of funds.
Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, announced that the Senate has approved in third and final reading the conversion of NMMC to a 1,200-bed hospital with a budget of more than P 2 billion. -0-
