Gordon: Red Cross to conduct free COVID-19 tests for Fabella hospital staff after reported infection of 7 docs

The Philippine Red Cross will conduct free COVID-19 tests among health workers of the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila after some reportedly tested positive for the virus, its chairman Senator Richard Gordon said on Friday.

"We received an urgent call this morning from Dr. Esmeraldo Ilem, Medical Center chief of Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, requesting for PRC’s assistance to swab their 180 healthcare staff as seven of their resident doctors tested positive three days ago," Gordon said in a statement.

"We will test them immediately for humanitarian purposes and we are not going to charge their personnel," he added.

Otherwise, the hospital will be forced to halt operations if all its staff undergo a 14-day quarantine, according to the senator.

Earlier in the day, the hospital announced that it will close some of its units from October 24 to 27 for disinfection. However, it did not elaborate if the disinfection was prompted by the detection of COVID-19 among its workers.

Since October 14, the PRC temporarily suspended accommodating the samples that are chargeable to the PhilHealth fund due to the latter's unsettled debt amounting to almost P1 billion. The PhilHealth-funded COVID-19 tests include those for frontline health and government workers.

Gordon committed that the PRC would shoulder the free COVID-19 testing among workers of the Fabella hospital, a health care institution for women and newborns.

"To date, PRC has already tested 34,093 healthcare workers in 15 DOH hospitals nationwide, regularly, once every two weeks," he said. — RSJ, GMA News