DOH: Healthcare workers contracting COVID-19 not related to PPE shortage

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) disputed claims that the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs) in the country has led to a high number of healthcare workers contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday explained that some healthcare workers contract COVID-19 outside of their workplaces.

“Kalaunan, nakita natin na it’s not really PPE-related. It’s something like when they go home and they go back to work and they get infections outside of workplaces,” she explained.

(We saw that it is not PPE-related. It’s something like, when they go home and they go back to work and they get infections outside of workplaces.)

This was the case for the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) where initial reports said one of the encoders having contracted the virus in their community and later brought it to the hospital.

READ: RITM scales down lab operations as coronavirus infects 43 employees

Healthcare workers in other countries are given lodgings and accommodation so their exposure to the disease from the outside is lesser, Vergeire explained.

Meanwhile, other healthcare workers were infected by the virus after some patients lied about their travel history and exposure.

“Nagstart yan doon sa pagdami ng ating mga kaso na the doctors or the medical workers were unaware na this patient has exposure pala or history, so they got the disease,” Vergeire said.

(It started when many doctors or medical workers are being infected because they were unaware that the patient they treated has exposure or history.)

While acknowledging that there is indeed a shortage of PPEs in the country, Vergeire doubts that healthcare professionals will treat COVID-19 patients without wearing some sort of protective equipment.

“I don’t think any doctor really would treat a patient without anything on, doon ako nagtataka sa balita na ‘yan,” the Health official said.

(I don’t think any doctor would really treat a patient without anything on, that’s what is bothering me with that report.)

So far, there are 1,062 healthcare workers who are afflicted with COVID-19, with 26 fatalities.

A total of 422 of those infected with the coronavirus are doctors, 386 are nurses, 30 are medical technologists, 21 are radio technologists, 51 are nursing assistants, and 152 are administrative workers and barangay health workers.

READ: 1,062 healthcare workers in PH have COVID-19; 26 die

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier expressed alarm over the “very worrisome” trend of the increasing number of Filipino healthcare workers afflicted with the COVID-19, which was at least four times more than the average in the Western Pacific region.

READ: High number of virus-hit health workers makes PH ‘an outlier’

/MUF