The Davao Oriental Provincial Medical Center. (Photo courtesy of Mati CIO)
DAVAO CITY -- The Davao Oriental Provincial Medical Center (DOPMC) confirmed on Monday that one of its doctors tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
In a statement, DOPMC said the front-liner is a 32-year-old resident doctor for internal medicine at the hospital. He was subjected to RT-PCR swab test on May 8 and consequently received a negative result on May 14 and reported for duty at the DOPMC on May 25 to 26 without any symptoms.
Already securing a negative RT-PCR swab test result days prior to his duty at the DOPMC, he was again subjected to a mandatory RT-PCR swab test on May 26 per protocols of the Provincial Task Force on Covid-19.
Results of the swab test released on May 30 confirmed that he is positive of Covid-19, prompting the DOPMC management and the Provincial Task Force on COVID-19 to immediately conduct extensive contact-tracing.
As a result, 58 hospital staff--majority of whom are nurses--are now quarantined for having direct contact with the doctor. All of the isolated staff were asymptomatic except for one who is experiencing runny nose due to recurrent sinusitis, DOPMC said.
On Sunday (May 31), DOPMC said stringent disinfection measures were done at its premises, while the Mati City Incident Management Team (IMT) said it has started contact tracing all of the doctor's patients.
IMT commander, Dr. Ben Hur Catbagan Jr., said they have already identified 10 DOPMC patients who had close contact with the infected health worker.
Catbagan said the patients and their close contacts will be placed on a 14-day quarantine to be strictly monitored by Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) and will be scheduled for RT-PCR testing.
"Through the leadership of Mayor Michelle Rabat and the cooperation and contribution of everybody, we have managed to control and contain the spread of Covid -19 in our City as of this time. With established systems in contact tracing and contact isolation and the public complying with the minimum health standards, we believe we can now start reviving our economy," Catbagan said.
Last May 29, the province announced 12 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection in the towns of Banaybanay and San Isidro.
Eight are returning OFWs while four have travel history to Maguindanao. (PNA)
