BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
“Do not worry,” Dr. Julius Drilon, chief of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, assured the public over the weekend.
Because, he said, the “CLMMRH is prepared in case of a surge in Covid cases due to the Delta variant.”
In a pre-recorded statement, Drilon said they had already enhanced their processes since January assuming that the Delta variant of Covid may already be in the community.
Drilon said CLMMRH has additional beds and had replaced the protocols in high impact areas and the emergency department.
He said protocols on protective equipment have also been replaced while all patients to be admitted, including their watchers, are now swabbed.
Drilon added they requested for additional human resource personnel but are still waiting for the approval of the budget for their salaries and allowances.
Delta is the name of the B.1.617.2. variant, a SARS-CoV-2 mutation that originally surfaced in India in December.
The variant is considered highly transmissible and is also believed to have caused a surge of Covid 19 cases not only in India but also other areas, including Great Britain and Indonesia.
In the Philippines, 47 Delta variant cases had been recorded, as of July 22, with 36 recoveries and three deaths. The rest remained as active infections.
Of the total number of confirmed Delta variant cases in the country, 24 were returning overseas Filipinos while the rest were all local cases.
Drilon assured the public that they will attend to patients who need to be admitted immediately, either due to Covid-19 or other illnesses.
The Covid positivity rate in Bacolod, as of July 18, was 41.30 percent, from 55.38 percent the previous week, the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit records showed.
VACCINE ROLLOUT
Meanwhile, the Covid Vaccination Council of Bacolod has, so far, inoculated 103,925 residents as of Thursday, the Emergency Operations Center reported.
Of the number, 29,720 have been fully vaccinated.
On Saturday, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran were also overseeing the vaccination drive for judges and lawyers at the Hall of Justice.
City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of EOC, said the rollout was upon the request of Executive Judge Raymond Joseph Javier.
Also present at the inoculation activity were Councilor Renecito Novero, IBP-Negros Occidental president Josephine Natalaray, acting City Health Officer Dr. Edwin Miraflor, EOC deputy for medical Dr. Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, Parole and Probation Administration regional director Perlita Silvederio, Philippine Association of Court Employees president Josefa Dapat, and city consultant John Orola, who is also a director of IBP-Negros Occidental.
The vaccination drive at the Hall of Justice also catered to senior citizens, adults with comorbidities, and frontline personnel in essential sectors, including frontline workers in law and justice, security, and social protection sectors, a press release from the city said.
Senior citizens and persons with comorbidities were given Johnson & Johnson shots, while the rest received AstraZeneca jabs.
Ang and Miraflor were also overseeing the vaccination drive for elderly residents, nuns, staff members, and caregivers at St. Vincent’s Home for the Aged in Barangay Tangub Saturday.
Elderly people, especially those with existing medical conditions, and living closely together in residential care facilities or homes for the aged, place residents at increased risk of infection and severe illness from Covid, the press release said.
Reaching out to this sector is part of the vaccination campaign strategy of the EOC-Task Force and the CoVaC, both chaired by Leonardia, the press release added.*
