CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Up to 28 medical workers, mostly nurses and attendants at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) in this city, have tested positive for COVID-19.
The infected hospital workers were quarantined at the hospital’s emerging and infectious diseases rehabilitation and isolation center on the outskirts of the city.
Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha, NMMC spokesman, said the patients have received their booster shots, but had been working in COVID wards for two months straight.
He appealed for understanding for the shortage in health workers, saying the NMMC, which is the only COVID-19 referral hospital in Northern Mindanao, is ”grossly undermanned.”
“The hospital is stretching and maximizing its personnel that even doctors have to render a 24 to 48-hour duty to be able to address hospital admissions, especially COVID-19 patients,” Rocha said.