The Makati Medical Center (MMC) on Wednesday slammed Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III for breaching its infection and containment protocols for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after he accompanied his pregnant wife to the hospital.
Earlier today, the senator was confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Pimentel claimed that upon knowing the positive test result, he immediately left the hospital on Tuesday.
His wife Kathryna also denied that her husband was with him in the delivery room.
“By being in MMC, Senator Pimentel violated his Home Quarantine Protocol, entered the premises of the MMC-DR, thus unduly exposed healthcare workers to possible infection,” MMC medical director Dr. Saturnino Javier said in a strongly-worded statement on Wednesday.
“As a result, a number of our nurses and doctors will be quarantined which will further deplete the dwindling workforce of the hospital,” he added.
The entire Delivery Room Complex will also be decontaminated and disinfected before it can be used.
“We denounce the irresponsible and reckless action of the senator,” Javier continued, adding that the senator added to “the burden of a hospital trying to respond in its most competent and aggressive manner to cope with the daunting challenges of this COVID-19 outbreak.”
Javier further said: “More than anything else, Mr. Pimentel should have realized the ardent desire of every well-meaning Filipino and every dedicated healthcare institution to contain the spread of the infection.”
“His admonition for everyone to observe social distancing, enhanced community quarantine measures, washing of hands and personal hygiene are nothing but empty rhetoric because he himself violated all those,” he added.
Javier said that by his actions, the senator “contributed no solution and instead created another problem for the MMC, the very institution which embraced his wife for obstetric care.”
“We fervently pray that none of our healthcare staff will acquire the COVID-19 infection. As we make this wish, we plead and urge everyone to do his share in quelling the spread of this infection — especially our nation’s duly elected leaders,” Javier ended.
