2 to 5 PGH healthcare workers contract COVID-19 in a day — spox

MANILA, Philippines — In a day, about two to five healthcare workers in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) contract COVID-19, a hospital official said Wednesday.

PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario said healthcare workers are tested for COVID-19 if they experience symptoms or if they have “significant exposure” to the disease.

“At least, in a day, mga two to five healthcare workers would turn out to be positive,” he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

However, the hospital is already able to cope with the infections since it has tightened health protocols and instituted changes to control the infection rate among its personnel.

The number of infected healthcare workers spiked in mid-March and in the first week of April, with most of them contracting the disease in their respective communities, he added.

But most of these have already recovered and most of those who are in quarantine turned out to be negative of the coronavirus.

At least 5 COVID-19 patients die in a day

In the last three weeks, at least five COVID-19 patients in the PGH die of the disease per day, with some days racking up to seven or 10 deaths, Rosario said.

“Mayroon pong times na mas mataas doon, mga seven to 10 pero more or less mga limang patients ang namamatay na dumadating o naka-admit na,” he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

(There are times that the deaths are more, reaching up to seven to ten but more or less, about five patients, who are either admitted or yet to be admitted, die.)

There are instances where patients arriving at the hospital are already in a very critical condition and are almost “dead on arrival” while some died in the intensive care unit (ICU) after not being able to recover from the disease, Rosario said.

“‘Yung iba sa PGH, sa emergency room, minsan pagdating halos dead on arrival na o very critical. ‘Yung iba naman ay nasa ICU at talagang malubha din po sila, hindi sila makaahon sa COVID, namamatay din po,” he said.

A total of 16,141 individuals have died due to COVID-19 across the country, according to the latest tally of the Department of Health (DOH).

As of April 20, the number of confirmed cases reached 953,106, with 809,959 recoveries and 127,006 active cases.

/MUF