DAVAO CITY—Three tertiary hospitals in Davao City had applied to become Covid-19 testing centers in Mindanao.
This was disclosed by Dr. Annabelle Yumang, spokesperson of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Region, in a radio interview, Monday and monitored by Sandigan News and Banat Pilipinas News. She said those hospitals are the Davao Doctors Hospital, San Pedro Hospital and the Brokenshire Hospital, all of them are located in Davao City.
“As of the moment, the Southern Philippines Medical Center is the only accredited medical facility in Mindanao to test and to confirm Covid-19 cases and the DOH and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease will consider the application of the three hospitals immediately,” she said. The addition of three private hospitals will certainly boost the mass testing capacity of the region according to the spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio during her live interview over the Davao City Disaster Radio on Tuesday, said the leaders of the region would remain to lockdown its borders from other provinces in Mindanao despite the lifting of the ECQ to contain the spread of Covid-19.
“Our borders are still on lockdown. Very few, and only under extremely special circumstances, are allowed to enter in our region,” Mayor Duterte-Carpio said.
In retrospect, the region was among the “high-risk areas” in Mindanao by the IATF thus the enhanced community quarantine would be extended until May 15.
This action of the mayor, who also heads the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 is in response of growing number of confirmed cases the region, which reached 129 on Tuesday, making it the highest in Mindanao.
On his part, Governor Jayvee Uy of Davao de Oro said he would sustain the ECQ until May 15 even if the IATF in Manila had stricken-off their province and Davao del Norte in the original list of the “high risk areas” in Mindanao.
