Eight health care workers from this city left for the National Capital Region on Monday to augment the workforce in a major hospital in the wake of the continuing surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.

The health workers, all nurses of the St. Elizabeth Hospital here, volunteered for temporary deployment at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, the hospital said in a statement on Tuesday.

It said the eight nurses arrived in Manila Monday afternoon aboard a Philippine Airlines flight and will undergo mandatory quarantine as well as online orientation before taking on their assignments.

“This is the second time in a span of one year that brave volunteers from St. Elizabeth Hospital flew to Manila to lend a hand to our sister hospitals in NCR,” the hospital management said.

During the initial stages of the pandemic last year, eight of its nurses also volunteered to be assigned at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Manila.

The latest volunteers are Norlaynie Abolais, Ryan Davis Cabarlo, Rex Congson, Geraldine Domanio, Elviro Firmalino Jr., Donna Lyn Juridico, Raffy Franz Manabat and Jayson Montano.

Congson said he did not hesitate to volunteer for the deployment in Metro Manila despite the risky situation in the area due to the increasing Covid-19 cases that already affected the local health system.

He said it is his duty to render help to their colleagues as what he had sworn when he entered the profession.

The nurse, who was among the initial batch of health workers here who earlier received the Sinovac vaccine, said his inoculation also gave him the confidence of having protection from the disease.

“There is a call to help our hospitals in Manila and as a nurse, I think this is an opportunity to serve our people. But more than that I think it is our mandate to really help whether there is a pandemic or not,” he said.

St. Elizabeth Hospital, which is operated by the Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc., is one of the six referral facilities here for Covid-19 patients. (PNA)