A hospital in Iloilo City has decided to temporarily stop accepting COVID-19 patients “due to the shortage of nurses.

“We will temporarily suspend admissions of COVID-19 patients until August 30, 2021,” Dr. Alejandro Emmanuel Rivera, Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital, Inc. president, said in his letter to Mayor Jerry Trenas.

According to Rivera, seven of their nurses assigned in COVID-19 areas of the hospital in Molo district.

“We will resume admissions of COVID-19 patients on Tuesday next week, Aug. 31. However, we will temporarily reduce our alloted bed capacity (10 rooms),” he said.

Meanwhile, 12 crew members of a cargo vessel contracted the viral disease, Jeck Conlu, spokesperson of the city goverment’s COVID-19 Team, disclosed.

He said they are still waiting for the results of RT-PCR tests conducted on 16 more crew members.

Iloilo City, as of Aug. 28, has a total of 1,503 active cases of COVID-19, the second highest in the whole Western Visayas region.IMT