Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) frontline workers in Iloilo City will be provided with free lodging.

Mayor Jerry Treñas said on Sunday, March 22, the Iloilo City Community College (ICCC) in Molo district is now being prepared for use as a temporary shelter for frontliners.

Health workers of The Medical City (TMC) in Iloilo are battling discrimination after the hospital confirmed that the first COVID-19 case in the province is confined at its isolation facility.

“It is very disheartening to know that the very people who have sworn to take care of us are now being discriminated against. These people are risking their own lives so the rest of us may live,” Dr. Felix Ray Villa, chief executive officer of TMC Iloilo, said in a statement.

“Please take note that our biggest enemy is COVID 19 and should not be ignorance. Let us educate ourselves properly so we may understand why they do what they do. After them, we have no one.”

Treñas was disappointed to all those who discriminate the health workers. 

“I have been receiving messages today that our fellow Ilonggos who are in the medical field are discriminated against. Buses reject them, karinderyas won’t sell to them, their landlords evicted them. We should not allow this to happen,” Treñas said.

“Please keep in mind if they cannot eat, they cannot go to work or cannot sleep who will take care of you if you will be infected? Would you also want them to treat you the same?”

The mayor urged everyone to “help each other and be heroes in our own little ways.”

“Let us make our fathers and forefathers proud. You can sponsor a medical staff for food and lodging. Any help will go a long way,” he said.

Meanwhile, TMC Iloilo assured that the hospital is observing protocols in handling COVID-19 cases.

“The management had already identified and quarantined health workers who have come in contact with the patient who tested positive for the disease.

“These healthcare and frontliners no longer pose any danger to those who are coming in at TMC Iloilo and the general public as a whole,” it said.IMT

Photo by Matty Trenas