Ilocos Norte hospital to build COVID-19 field facility

By Christine Fabro

A COVID-19 field hospital is underway in Ilocos Norte to prevent overcrowding inside the hospital premises while individuals wait in line to get tested for the COVID-19 before admission.

The state-run Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMHMC) in Batac City made this announcement on Wednesday (July 17) in light of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the province, where most COVID-19 patients are being referred to the tertiary level hospital, a primary treatment center for critical patients with viral disease, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported.

In a statement, the management said that they are in need of construction materials and cash donations for the building of the temporary COVID-19 facility.

As of Tuesday (July 8) Ilocos Norte logged a total of 103 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number of infections recorded in a single day. 

There were a total of 4,155 COVID-19 cases in the province which are mostly from the cities of Laoag and Batac, as well as the towns of Bangui, San Nicolas and Badoc.

Meanwhile, some 3,118 doses of COVID-19 vaccine are now en route to Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte for the mass vaccination program in these provinces, the Department of Health Region 1 (DOH-1) said on Wednesday (July 7).

The DOH-1 dispatched at least 2,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines, which are equally distributed to Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, and an additional 1,118 Sinovac vaccine doses will be deployed to Ilocos Norte health units.

These vaccine doses will be administered to first and second dose recipients under priority groups A1, A2, and A3.

As of June 2021, Ilocos Norte Provincial Health Consultant Dr. Rogelio Balbag said that a total of 62,772 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have already been administered to residents here.

By the end of July, a larger amount of vaccines are expected to arrive in the province, including the 120,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that the provincial government has pre-ordered in early February, the PNA reported.

To date, Ilocos Norte already has vaccinated a total of 6,624 individuals out of its more than 600,000 population. – rir