Mayor John Geesnell Yap bared that the city government is looking at filing appropriate charges against a Coronavirus disease (Covid)-positive patient who allegedly sought confinement in a hospital but lied about his status.
This was the revelation of Mayor Yap in an exclusive interview over NEWSMAKERS on Apr. 16, 2021 hosted by the mother and son tandem of Ardy & Chandymar Araneta-Batoy.
Reports said that a person who was waiting for his RT-PCR TEST RESULTS allegedly asked to be admitted in a local hospital in Tagbilaran but lied about his condition.
As a consequence, the patient was placed in the non-Covid emergency area of the hospital.
The reports add that the patient asked to be admitted on the evening of April 15, 2021.
As this developed, several health care workers in the said hospital are now in isolation.
Moreover, Yap said that he will also file a complaint before the employer of the Covid-positive person for appropriate disciplinary action.
The mayor said the pieces of evidence are now being collected and will be forwarded to the City Legal Office to determine what legal action to take against the patient who lied, the mayor said during the radio interview.
“Daghan kaayong na apektuhan ani. In fact, the whole hospital naapektuhan tungod sa bakak niya [patient],” the mayor added.
BACKGROUND
According to sources, the Covid-positive patient visited a local hospital for a check-up.
Before anyone can enter the hospital a procedure known as triage will be done where patients wishing to get some treatment will be subjected to interview and the patients will make declarations about their health or travel history.
This process was brought about by the current pandemic to ensure that the infection control in the different health institutions is very tight.
The triage will also determine if a patient should be directed to the clean emergency room or to the emergency room for Covid-suspect patients.
Patients need to tell the truth when making health declarations as Covid-positive patients could end up in areas where the biosecurity is not strict which could further lead to transmission of the virus.
According to sources, the Covid-positive person who entered a local hospital seeking treatment was waiting for his polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test but allegedly did not reveal the status in the triage.
As a result, the patient was sent to the clean emergency room and attended to by medical staff not wearing the highest level of personal protective equipment (PPE).
It was only after the admission to clean emergency room that the PCR result came out proving that the patient is infected with the virus, according to the source.