The emergency room and obstetrics department of the Vicente Gustilo District Hospital in Escalante City, Negros Occidental, have temporarily been closed for disinfection.
They will be reopened when the COVID-19 tests results of their five nurses and doctor who were exposed to a coronavirus-positive patient are released, Vermont Juvahib, head of the Escalante City Hospital Management Department, said Thursday, May 6.
On Tuesday, a patient needing an emergency cesarean operation underwent a rapid test for COVID-19 and tested negative, he said.
After the operation the patient was again swabbed for an RT-PCR test and tested positive for COVID-19, he added.
The patient and her child have been transferred to the Cadiz District Hospital that is a COVID-19 designated facility.
The nurses and doctor who were exposed to the patient have been swabbed and isolated, and their RT-PCR test results are being awaited, he said.
A nurse and an administration section staff at the hospital earlier tested COVID-positive and are in quarantine, Juvahib added.*