Rather than risk direct national government intervention similar to what happened in Cebu City, Mayor Oscar Moreno said he will order the City Health Office (CHO) to offer the city’s isolation units and temporary treatment management facility (TTMF) to house COVID-19 patients of Iligan City.
“We don’t want a situation in which the national government will have to send their people to Iligan City similar to what happened in Cebu City and even Zamboanga City. We want to avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases that would overwhelm Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) and result in a region wide lockdown that would make life harder for the people of Cagayan de Oro,” Mayor Moreno said during Monday noon’s (Aug. 10) press briefing.
Based on data from the Department of Health (DOH-10), Iligan City registered 27 COVID-19 positive cases from Aug. 3 to 9, up from 11 cases last Aug. 2. Mayor Moreno previously offered the city’s TTMF for use by the mayors of Misamis Oriental’s towns to help house some of their COVID-19 positive patients.
In reiterating NMMC’s role as northern Mindanao’s COVID-19 referral hospital, Mayor Moreno said the NMMC’s critical care utilization rate or capacity to handle COVID-19 patients should not be overwhelmed beyond their current level.
“The NMMC is the region’s vessel and all of us are passengers in the same boat trying to reach the (shore of recovery). We must protect our boat,” Mayor Moreno said.
For his part, NMMC liaison officer Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha said they are further upgrading their facilities in anticipation of more patients once the national government lifts the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) over the National Capital Region (NCR).