The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) has been designated as the only Davao City hospital that will cater to confirmed COVID-19 patients based on Executive Order (EO) No. 60 Series of 2021, which took effect immediately.
EO 60, signed by Acting Mayor Sebastian Duterte on October 29, 2021, is known as “An Order Designating A Single Hospital for Confirmed COVID-19 Patients in Davao City.”
Duterte, in his EO, ordered that “The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) shall be the only hospital in Davao City to cater to confirmed COVID-19 patients.”
As the number of confirmed cases in the city decreases and the vaccination and recovery rates are improving, he said it is more prudent to designate a single hospital to continue carrying out COVID-19 services for now.
“Designating a single hospital to cater to COVID-19 confirmed cases will protect healthcare personnel assigned in other hospitals from exposure to workplace-acquired COVID-19,” he said.
He added that designating the government hospital as the sole COVID-19 hospital will allow private hospitals to free up their allotted COVID beds and medical staff for non-COVID cases and sustain their business operations.
EO 60 also provides that all private hospitals in Davao City shall ensure support to SPMC by not admitting confirmed positive COVID-19 patients;
reopen their facilities to accommodate confirmed COVID-19 patients in case of a surge, and must prepare for the possibility to be designated as a COVID-19 hospital.
Private hospitals shall be on a decking order and will be properly informed by the City Government and Department of Health (DOH) as to when they shall reopen as a COVID-19 hospital.
EO 60 cited the City Health Office’s COVID-19 Daily Case Bulletin report that there were 2,328 active cases in Davao City as of October 25, 2021, a huge decrease from the 5,402 active cases as of October 10 and 4,031 active cases as of October 17.
The Daily Case Bulletin also showed an increase in the COVID-19 recovery rate in the city, from 86.4 percent as of October 10 to 92.4 percent as of October 25;
Davao City is currently at 71.77 percent for first doses and 62.19 percent for second doses in its target number of inoculations, as reported by the Davao COVID-19 Task Force on October 25, 2021.
Check out the full provisions of EO 60 at https://dcstaging.davaocity.gov.ph/transparency/executive-orders/2021-executive-orders/. CIO
