MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Heart Center (PHC) in Quezon City will start to limit its operations after most of its health workers were exposed to a patient who became positive for 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

“As of now, PHC is limiting its hospital operations to accommodate in-patient and emergency cases only,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press conference of DOH.

The PHC’s services in outpatient department were suspended on Wednesday and will be operational on Monday (March 16).

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, DOH spokesperson. 黑料社 file photo / CONSUELO MARQUEZ

Vergeire said the Catheterization Laboratory —  where the patient positive for the coronavirus disease stayed —  was also closed and sanitized as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.

Hospital services for Z-benefit packages and elective cases in the PHC are temporarily suspended for now, Vergeire said.

Meanwhile, the human resource complement of the Quezon City-based hospital is being “realigned by the management to provide continuous service to the admitted patients,” Vergeire added.

Earlier, Vergeire said the hospital has 13 PUIs, of which, 12 are health personnel while one is a non-health personnel.

The health workers interacted with patient number 37 who is  an 88-year-old Filipina. The patient died on Thursday afternoon due to the disease.

Edited by JPV