MANILA, Philippines — A frontliner at a hospital in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat was attacked with bleach while on his way to work Friday.

The incident comes after the Department of Health’s (DOH) confirmation on Thursday that an 87-year-old man from Sultan Kudarat, who died March 14, was found to have been positive for COVID-19.

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St. Louis Hospital said in a statement on Saturday that one of its staff was mobbed by a group of five who “splattered Zonrox all over his face, which could have caused irreparable and permanent damage to his sight.” The personnel managed to go to the hospital to receive treatment.

The hospital reported the incident to local police and called for justice. “Our personnel is a breadwinner, as many of our frontliners are, who in the present pandemonium, chose to bravely continue their duties to the community,” it said.

It also called for solidarity toward health professionals. “Instead of discriminating the healthcare workers, to the point of committing untold violence against them, we, as a community should show solidarity with these individuals who risk their lives so that continued medical service remains unhampered.”

St. Louis Hospital treated a patient under investigation (PUI) who died on March 14. It only received the patient’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) results on March 25 and said in a statement on the same day that the results had been leaked online.

Without specifying an incident, the hospital said then that its frontliners had experienced “discriminatory actions.”

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It assured that as of Saturday, none of its staff have been infected with the coronavirus.

/MUF

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For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH Hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.

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