Harry Roque when asked how he got hospital room: ‘That is an unchristian question’

In the face of reports that COVID-19 patients are having difficulty entering the hospital due to overcrowding, some will inevitably ask if presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who is confined to the hospital due to the virus, has also experienced this.

However, the secretary refused to give details about it, and instead explained that his oxygen level had dropped so he had to be taken to the hospital.

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“With all due respect, that is an unchristian question,” Roque said Monday while at the Philippine General Hospital, where he conducts regular press briefings.

“Bumaba po ang aking oxygen level to 90,” he said.

Harry Roque said he tested positive for COVID-19 on April 10. On the same day, he said he will attend the online meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

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On March 15, Roque also announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 but was asymptomatic.

Roque did not show his RT-PCR test when asked by reporters due to alleged “privacy.”

This Monday, Harry Roque assured that initiatives have been laid out to treat COVID-19 patients in the country.

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Ang aking assurance, sa administrasyon ni Presidente Rodrigo Duterte, lahat po ng nangangailangan ng tulong medikal ay mabibigyan ng tulong dahil sa Universal Healthcare Law,” he insisted.

Harry Roque when asked how he got hospital room: ‘That is an unchristian question’

In recent weeks, several stories of patients who died while waiting to be admitted to the hospital have been reported as COVID-19 patients have already filled hospitals like Metro Manila.

Others, on the other hand, have to go to several hospitals or reached nearby provinces before their patients were admitted to the hospital.

Last month, a senior citizen with COVID-19 died right outside the emergency room of a hospital in Metro  while waiting to be admitted.

The patient’s son said that not a single hospital has been able to refill the oxygen tank they use because other patients also need oxygen.

At two o’clock in the morning, they decided to take care of their father at home.

But, by three o’clock in the morning, his father had stopped breathing.

The Department of Health reported 11,378  and 204 new deaths on April 12. The Philippines has a total of 876,225 COVID-19 cases, 703,625 recoveries, and 15,149 deaths.