DEPUTY Speaker Rufus Rodriguez has asked the Department of Health (DoH) to immediately send 24 ventilators to Cagayan de Oro City hospitals in the wake of the surge in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) cases.

In a letter to Health Secretary Francisco Duque lll on Monday, Rodriguez, who represents the city’s 2nd District, said as of last Sunday, there was a total of 10,107 cases in Cagayan de Oro.

Similar letters were sent to Cabinet Sec. Karlo Nograles, Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Co Chair, Health Usec Abdullah Dumama, Jr, Field Implementation and Coordination Team (Visayas and Mindanao) and Dir. Ma. Soledad Antonio.

“The hospitals in the city are still seeing an influx of COVID-19 patients, with some forced to wait in line for vacancy. The healthcare utilization rate is at 74.56 percent,” Rodriguez said.

He said for the period June 14-20, there were 563 new infected persons, 37 of whom were admitted to hospitals, while the others were outpatients.

“Also during this period, 17 individuals died of COVID-19,” he added.

Rodriguez asked for ventilators for the following hospitals: 1. Northern Mindanao Medical Center – 10 units; 2. J. R. Borja General Hospital – 3 units; 3. Maria Reyna – Xavier University Hospital – 3 units; 4. Capitol University Medical Center – 2 units; 5. Cagayan de Oro Polymedic Medical Plaza -2 units; 6. Cagayan de Oro Medical Center/Oncology Cancer – 2 units; and 7. Madonna and Child Hospital – 2 units Rodriguez said the ventilators he requested “can be sourced from the remaining 63 units the DoH (Department of Health) has announced were on standby and ready to be deployed to the regions.”

“The DoH has to help our hospitals treat COVID-19 patients especially now that there is a so-called Delta or Indian variant that is more contagious than the UK variant,” he said.

Earlier, the House leader requested for additional COVID-19 vaccines for Cagayan de Oro.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco