Red Cross rescues nurse evicted from boarding house

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Red Cross rescued a nurse who was kicked out of her boarding house in Makati after she contracted the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19, PRC officials said yesterday.

The female nurse, who works as a customer care representative for a health insurance company, was rescued after she was seen roaming the streets of Makati.

In an interview on ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, she said she informed her landlady that she tested positive for the virus on Aug. 2.

She said she was forced to leave her room.

The nurse said she informed her family in Batangas, but they said they could not help her because it was already late.

She left her boarding house at around 9 p.m. and looked for temporary shelter.

“I was looking for a place to stay and could not find any in Makati. I reached Pasay. That’s where I checked into a hotel for two nights,” she said.

After checking out on Aug. 5, she went to the health center of Barangay Olympia in Makati to seek help. But a local official told her that the office was closed.

She said a friend referred her to the PRC.

According to Zenaida Beltejar, consultant of the PRC, the nurse was found sitting on the gutter along J.P. Rizal street.

An ambulance brought her to a quarantine facility at the Quezon Institute.