READY TO HELP. Health workers at the Eastern Visayas Regional Covid-19 Testing Center (EVRCTC) in Tacloban City in this undated photo. The Department of Health in Eastern Visayas on Wednesday (Aug. 5, 2020) said they would deploy 20 health care professionals in the National Capital Region amid the rising threat of coronavirus disease 2019. (Photo courtesy of EVRCTC)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas will form a team of health care professionals to be deployed for hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) amid the rising threat of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
In a virtual presser on Wednesday, DOH-8 assistant regional director Exuperia Sabalberino said they would pull out a total of 20 health workers composed of doctors and nurses from its retained hospitals in the region.
“This is in response to the call of (Health) Secretary Francisco Duque to augment health workers in NCR. Our comrades there are asking for a timeout to regroup and improve our pandemic response to the overwhelmed health care system, especially in NCR and Regions 3 and 4,” she added.
The regional office here said there is no target date yet for their official deployment as they are still finalizing the list of health workers.
“Among the DOH-retained hospitals in the region are the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center here, the Schistosomiasis Hospital and Control Center in Palo and the treatment and rehabilitation center in Dulag, all in Leyte. We will also select professionals under the medical residency program deployed in different hospitals here,” Sabalberino said.
Based on the DOH monitoring report, a total of 1,035 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the region since its first reported case last March.
Most confirmed patients are returning residents, including overseas Filipino workers and locally stranded individuals, mostly from Metro Manila and Cebu.
Sabalberino said 743 or 71.78 percent of the region’s confirmed patients have already recovered, while four from Leyte, Biliran, and Samar died of Covid-19 complications.
To date, the region has 289 active cases housed in hospitals, local community isolation units, and temporary treatment and monitoring facilities. (PNA)
