By Minka Klaudia Tiangco

A total of 530 medical staff of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital are currently under quarantine after being exposed to patients being treated for the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) or persons under investigation (PUIs).

In a statement issued to the Varsitarian, UST’s official campus paper, the UST Hospital management team said several consultants, fellows, residents, nurses, and aides are among those who are under quarantine.

“The recent days were quite challenging and unprecedented. We had to act on the rapid upsurge of COVID-related cases in our hospital, and the sudden reduction of our healthcare workforce because of mandatory quarantine of exposed staff,” the statement read.

Lack of personal protective equipment as well as difficulties experienced by health workers in getting to the hospital also hamper UST Hospital’s operations, the management lamented.

The management said it will regulate admissions and stop elective procedures in selected units temporarily to address the issue of the hospital’s “depleted workforce.”

Hospital staff and trainees will also go on alternating skeletal duty schedules to limit exposure risks.

The hospital’s Clinical Division Medical Ward was used to isolate COVID-19 patients and PUIs.

Earlier, the UST Hospital management team announced that they have discharged one of two COVID-19 patients who were admitted in the hospital.

Per the Department of Health’s latest data, there are 380 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, with 25 deaths.