Bacolod City – The Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) of Bacolod City will be implementing stringent procedures in admitting as well as maintaining COVID-19 patients in all the city’s quarantine facilities.
This came after a 40-year-old male COVID-19 patient identified as Thaddeus Santia-on of Bago City, who reportedly escaped from the Medel Elementary School Quarantine Facility in Bacolod City on October 31, was found dead by the police in Brgy. Pahanocoy, Bacolod City on November 2.
Bacolod Councilor Renecito Novero, chairman of the Quarantine Center Action Team, yesterday said that a watcher of one of the patients in the quarantine facility in Barangay Bata was immediately retrieved after leaving the facility and was subjected to swab test.
Novero said the watcher attending to the COVID-19 patient, who had recently undergone an operation, and was supposed to stay inside the facility during the quarantine period.
Meanwhile, Novero said the male COVID-19 patient, who was later found dead, was observed to be suffering from serious depression and was very quiet based on reports they received.
The personnel assigned to the facility tried to converse with him but he did not respond. Even his fellow patients observed his behavior and tried to talk to him but he refused to converse with them, he said.
The patient may have found an opportunity to escape since there was no police personnel in the facility, unlike in the past. After he was discovered missing, the EOC-TF was immediately alerted, he added.
Novero said Police Station 8 personnel started to search for him and contacted his sister in Brgy. Singcang-Airport and relatives in Bago to get any information regarding his whereabouts but was later found dead.
They do not yet know the cause of death of the patient and the matter is still under investigation. So, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia requested acting Bacolod Police Director Col. Thomas Joseph Martir to again deploy police personnel in all quarantine facilities 24/7, he said.
Novero said that he together with EOC-TF executive director Em Ang and Dr. Cris Sorongon, EOC deputy for medical, believes that there is a need to review the procedure of admitting patients to the quarantine facilities and submitting data to the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. Therefore, they will be implementing stricter processes in admitting and maintaining patients in all the city’s quarantine facilities.
(Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)