TACLOBAN CITY – The local government of Kananga, Leyte will temporarily stop accepting returning residents as its designated quarantine facilities have reached full capacity.
In a statement issued Thursday, Mayor Manuel Vicente Torres said this includes all returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Balik Probinsiya, Balik Pag-as a program beneficiary, and locally stranded individuals (LSIs) regardless of their place of origin.
“Our quarantine facilities with a total of 120 beds are already loaded. Thus, we could no longer continue accepting new arrivals until further notice, as we have no more space to isolate them,” he said.
On June 16, the Department of Health (DOH) announced the town’s first coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) case admitted at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center here.
The local government said the community where the patient resides in Rizal village was placed under lockdown the next day to prevent a possible spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, two adjacent communities in Kawayan and San Isidro villages were also placed under lockdown on Monday, after it was found that a resident had close contact with a coronavirus patient from nearby Ormoc City.
“This is to protect my constituents from the local transmission of the virus. The increasing number of Covid-19 cases in our province is alarming considering than more half of the province’s towns and cities have at least one positive case,” Torres said.
Since the outbreak in the country, Eastern Visayas has confirmed a total of 342 cases, including 36 recoveries and zero death, according to the DOH monitoring report.
Of the total, 160 are from Leyte, 74 from Samar, 42 from Ormoc City, 33 from Southern Leyte, 21 from Tacloban City, seven from Northern Samar, four from Biliran, and one from Eastern Samar.
(GERICO SABALZA/PNA)

TACLOBAN CITY-At least 22 healthcare workers have been added to the growing coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) positive cases in Eastern Visayas.
18 of these healthcare workers are working at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center while four of them are working at the Leyte Provincial Hospital, Dr. Minerva Molon, the regional director of the Department of Health (DOH-8) said.
At least 6 doctors, 7 nurses, 2 nursing attendants, 2 radiologist technician and a driver have been infected in EVRMC.
With the announcement from DOH-8, the EVRMC also made an advisory that the EVRMC – Emergency Department in Cabalawan and Magsaysay will be closed temporarily for admission and all referrals until further notice, Aron Balais, chairman of the said department, said.
The 22 healthcare workers were part of the 59 new confirmed COVID 19 cases that have been added to date, raising the total number now in the region to 344.
Meanwhile, EVRMC Chief of Hospital Dr. Salvador admitted that indeed there are lapses as to why there were health workers who got infected of the virus.
Evardone said that there were lapses in the decision making in the triage, there were patients who were able to go inside the triage, in which patients should not be admitted to emergency room if they were not yet screened outside of the hospital.
Admittedly there were breach of protocols in decision making, if the patient has cough and cold, they are supposed to be brought to EVRMC Magsaysay, said Evardone.
According to Evardone, it is ironic that only 2 health workers are positive of COVID-19 in Magsaysay and 16 in EVRMC Cabalawan when in fact the latter only serves as screening for patients.
It was also reported by Evardone that there was a healthcare worker that went to EVRMC Cabalawan to have its child’s wound stitched in the emergency room, it turned out that the health worker was positive with COVID-19, though not connected to the hospital, thus, doctors there were infected.
Evardone said that they are not blaming anyone with the situation, public should not panic because those positive healthcare workers do not attend to patients admitted at the ward section of the hospital.
Virtual consultation is ongoing and not face to face according to Evardone.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)