St. Luke’s Medical Center no longer admitting COVID-19 patients

The St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City and Global City will no longer be accepting COVID-19 patients after both exceeded their maximum capacity and hundreds of staff went into quarantine, hospital management announced Tuesday.

Both hospitals currently have a total of 48 COVID-19-positive patients and 139 patients under investigation, while 592 frontline healthcare workers are already on quarantine after coming into contact with confirmed cases.

“Admitting more COVID-19 patients will seriously impact our ability to deliver the critical level of care and attention patients need at this time,” they said in a statement. “While it is our desire to extend quality healthcare to every patient that needs our help, we can only do so much at this point.”

The hospital management said they will still provide outpatient COVID-19 testing to people who will meet the criteria set by the Department of Health.

The samples will be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and results will be released to the St. Luke’s Medical Center.

The hospitals’ emergency rooms will also continue accommodating patients for outpatient medical services around the clock.

St. Luke’s Medical Center joins a growing number of hospitals across Metro Manila that have been hard-hit by the continued rise of new coronavirus cases in the country, including The Medical City which earlier announced it can no longer accept COVID-19 patients and the University of Santo Tomas Hospital where 530 staff are quarantined.

COVID-19 has so far claimed 33 lives and infected 501 people in the Philippines. — RSJ, GMA News