FOLLOWING an incident involving a Covid-infected nurse who was kicked out of her boarding house and was seen roaming the streets of Makati City, Sen. Richard J. Gordon called for well-defined policies on the Covid-19 response of local government units (LGUs).
The senator, who is also Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chairman and CEO, said that whatever is lacking in the present setup should be improved.
The PRC rescued on Sunday night nurse “Gem,” who was infected with Covid-19. Gem, a customer care representative nurse under a health maintenance organization, was told to vacate her room within the day after informing her landlady last August 9 that she had contracted the virus.
Gem said she was eventually referred to the Red Cross through a friend.
The nurse was found sitting on the pavement along Southville Makati corner JP Rizal, according to Zenaida Beltejar, consultant of the PRC’s Welfare Services.
“Ito ay istorya ng discrimination [This is a story of discrimination]. ‘Wag n’yong gagawin ito sa kapwa natin Pilipino…. Lahat ng tao, dapat tinutulungan natin [Don’t do this to our fellow Filipino…. We should be helping all persons]. Mukhang mali ang polisiya ng gobyerno [There may be something wrong in the policy of the government ]. Isang nurse na magagamit natin sa paglaban sa Covid, lumalabas, walang policy ang gobyerno [A nurse whom we marshall to combat Covid-19 [but was discriminated] shows that the government has no policy],” Gordon said, particularly referring to barangay officials near the woman’s boarding house, who could not help her, forcing her to roam the streets late at night.
The barangay was apparently not trained to handle such cases, Gordon said of reports that personnel at Barangay Olympia in Makati allegedly did not help her when she sought their assistance. Other reports said someone in the barangay hall simply gave her the number of the nearest health center and told her to call it.
Gordon said there are facilities where local government units can turn over residents who tested positive for the disease, and local government units, down to the barangay level, should be trained on the proper protocols for such.
“This is why we have isolation wards. We can’t allow people like Gem to wander on the streets. Landlords should not be kicking out people” just like that, he said.
The nurse said she informed her family in Batangas of her plight, but they said they could not come and get her because it was already late. She left her boarding house at around 9 p.m. and looked for a temporary shelter.
Meanwhile, Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay ordered an immediate investigation of the incident.
Binay noted that Makati has an ordinance that prohibits and penalizes all forms of discrimination against persons with infectious diseases as well as frontliners and nurses. Moreover, Makati has existing facilities and protocols to handle Covid cases.
“It is unfortunate that this happened to the nurse in this case,” Atty. Don Camiña, spokesperson of Makati City LGU, quoted Binay as saying.
Gem said her family, meantime, told her she should have negative test results before she can return home.
1 comment