DAVAO CITY, August 7 (PIA) - With 131 employees infected with the coronavirus disease as of August 6, 2020, the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) is set to release a hospital memorandum regulating the behavior and practices of its frontliners to prevent infection amongst its personnel.

Chief of Medical Professional Staff Dr. Ricardo Audan bared in a Media Interaction earlier today that the recognized COVID facility in Davao Region needs to look into the reasons behind infection of its employees and address this through observing internal policy.

" As observed, one cause of infection is when the employees group together when they eat. We will also make it mandatory for the employees to wear face shield and mask." Dr. Audan said.

The SPMC official reported that there are 27 employees currently admitted; 101 personnel were already discharged; while three had expired.

In the hospital memorandum that will come out, the facility will have a monitoring team that will check on the practices and compliance of the health workers on the said policy. An employee will be reprimanded on his first offense; suspension on its 2nd and third offense, while the fourth violation will be meted by a dismissal from service.

The Department of Health XI Infectious Disease Program explained that the common form of transmission in Davao Region is when a person infected with COVID comes into the region from an area with high transmission like Manila and Cebu. The spread of the disease happens when that person is treated in a health facility. The health worker is highly exposed to getting infected and this is possible to even be transmitted when the health worker goes back home and could spread the virus to families and close contacts.

"That's why we always have to go back to the minimum health protocols which include wearing of mask, maintaining physical distancing, and proper hygiene," said DOH XI Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Cleofe Tabada.

Audan, however, expressed that the SPMC is still in dire need of health workers even if it has already hired 22 medical workers. The facility is still open to hire 60 nurses and 20 ward aide.

Not just in SPMC, the DOH XI announced in the recent One Davao Virtual Presser that all government medical facilities are in need of doctors and nurses. There are vacant positions available, however, only few are interested and willing to take the job.

A total of 11 employees of the SPMC has resigned from their job while there were 27 personnel of the Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) who left their position due to personal reasons. (PIA XI/Frances Mae Macapagat)