LUCENA CITY—The local government units of Tayabas City and the towns of Calauag and Lopez in Quezon confirmed in separate Facebook posts that the three new COVID-19 cases in the province involved health workers.
In a bulletin on Thursday (April 16), the Quezon Public Information Office (QPIO), citing data from the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), said the three new cases were found in Tayabas City and the towns of Calauag and Lopez.
On Wednesday, the local government of Candelaria also disclosed that its newest patient was a health worker.
Dr. Rolando Padre, director of provincial government-run Quezon Medical Center (QMC) here in Lucena City, admitted in an interview on Wednesday that at least 20 health workers had already been infected by the virus that causes COVID-19.
The number of health workers now infected with the coronavirus in the province is 24.
The QPIO recorded 41 cases as of Thursday.
But the number was adjusted to 32 following the recovery of three patients and the death of six others.
Padre said eight of the infected health workers—four doctors, two nurses and two nursing aides—were from the QMC.
“We’ve been conducting massive contact tracing since then,” he said.
Padre said he suspected that the eight contaminated health workers, most of them assigned to emergency rooms, could have been infected by patients.
Padre said most suspected coronavirus carriers seeking admission in QMC came from other hospitals who turned the sick people away.
Reminded of President Rodrigo Duterte’s warning to hospitals against rejecting patients, Padre said the Department of Health (DOH) had issued the same warning at the start of the pandemic.
“But sad to say it still being experienced by some patients and being committed by some hospitals,” he said.
Padre said patients at QMC who do not have coronavirus are isolated from those carrying the virus.
Protocol is being followed strictly, he added.
Padre refers to QMC as an “unofficially designated COVID-19 referral hospital”.
The DOH had not designated QMC as COVID-19 hospital but an executive order by the governor declared it to be.
Padre, however, said not all COVID-19 patients in the province are in QMC. “Other patients choose not to be transferred here,” he said.