COVID-19 hits 1,154 health workers from February to March 21, says DOH

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 1,154 healthcare workers have been inflicted with COVID-19 from February to March 21 this year, the period when the country saw a surge in coronavirus cases, the Department of Health (DOH) revealed Monday.

Of this number, 367 were active cases, 786 have already recovered, and one has died, according to DOH’s data.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said DOH is studying how to augment the workforce in hospitals that lack sufficient healthcare workers due to personnel contracting COVID-19, taking a leave, or resigning from their jobs.

“Last July and August what we did, we asked help from other regions who were not so much affected. And aside from that, meron ding mga hiring na ginawa (we also hired more personnel),” Vergeire said in an online press briefing.

“So tinitingnan po sa ngayon kung ano ang pwede nating maibigay sa ating mga healthcare units para dito sa additional health human resources,” she added.

(So we are looking at what we can do to provide healthcare units with additional health human resources.)

A total of 336,656 frontliners have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of March 20, according to DOH.

DOH also said 1,105,600 of the 1,125,600 available doses have already been distributed to vaccination sites across the country.

As of Sunday, the country has already recorded a total of 663,794 COVID-19 cases, including 73,072 are active cases, 577,754 recovered patients, and 12,968 fatalities.

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