Asian Hospital and Medical Center asks for transportation aid for medical workers amid Luzon quarantine

The Asian Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesday asked for transportation aid for its healthcare workers amid the enhanced community quarantine over Luzon.

According to the hospital's director for innovation Randy Cañal, they need vehicles such as vans, SUVs, and mini buses with drivers that they can use as official carriers of its medical workers.

He said some of the hospital staff were refused passage at checkpoints on Tuesday morning despite showing their identification cards.

“If the transport ban situation doesn’t change soon, we will also need transports for some patients who need to go to the hospital regularly,” Cañal said.

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“Not all of our dialysis and cancer patients have private cars and at the moment, these folks are being imaginative in finding ways to get here,” he added.

READ: Dialysis patients walk to hospitals amid enhanced community quarantine

Healthcare workers, who are at the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), are exempted from the travel restrictions imposed by the government.

Asian Hospital has already set up carpooling and transient rooms inside the facility, but these interventions will eventually “fall short of what is needed” to sustain operations effectively.

The hospital has augmented its transport fleet for use in ferrying staff, but it still needs more vans to bring their staff home (door to door).

Meanwhile, Cañal also asked for donations of personal protective equipment and financial support to help address important needs of the staff.

For transportation support, you may contact Asian Hospital facilities director Engr. Novy Sun, while monetary donations can be coursed through Asian Charities Inc.

Mass and public transportation has been suspended starting midnight of March 17 in connection with the enhanced community quarantine over Luzon that the Philippine government declared on Monday.

According to a memorandum by Executive Salvador Medialdea read by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on national television, land, air and sea travel shall be restricted.

Public utility buses, jeepneys, tricycles and vehicles under transport network services will not be allowed to ply the streets. The LRT-1, LRT-2, MRT-1 and the Philippine National Railways are likewise suspended.

Latest government data showed the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose to 187 on Tuesday after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed 45 new infections.

President Rodrigo Duterte has already placed the entire Philippines under state of calamity, allowing the government to tap more funds to contain the spread of the COVID-19.

The state of calamity will last for six months unless earlier lifted or extended by Duterte, according to Proclamation 929 signed by the president on Monday. --Ma. Angelica Garcia/MGP, GMA News