More than 200 PGH healthcare workers positive for COVID-19: spokesman
More than 200 healthcare workers in Philippine General Hospital (PGH), a COVID-19 referral hospital, are positive for COVID-19 while its intensive care unit (ICU) reached its full capacity, its spokesman said on Saturday.
"Many of our healthcare workers are positive for COVID-19. Twenty-five percent of our workforce are infected by COVID-19. It's a huge number especially in key areas it affects our operation," PGH spokesman Jonas Del Rosario said during the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing on Saturday.
"There are around 250 frontliners," he added.
He said the PGH has a total of close to 5000 frontliners or health care workers and 40 percent of them or about 2,000 are directly or indirectly involved in COVID-19 operations.
Jonas said "about 40 percent of their workforce are affected" because there are healthcare workers who were also placed under quarantine for exposure.
However, following the resolution issued by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) to shorten the quarantine and isolation period for healthcare workers, Del Rosario said PGU allows medical staff to work as long as they do not show symptoms.
"We do not place them under quarantine, as long as they do not have symptoms they can continue to work because we cannot quarantine too many employees, doctors, nurses and support staff because no one will provide service in the hospital," he said.
Jonas said because of the increasing COVID-19 cases, the PGH are opening more beds by reopening its COVID wards.
"Now our ICU is 100 percent occupied, our ICU for COVID. But our beds right now, we do not put caps because many of the non-COVID patients become infected. So if you use 255 patients right now, we can probably accommodate another 50, so we’re probably about 80 percent of our occupancy now," he said.
"Those in the ICU now (have) case profile are stroke, heart attack, with other illness, sepsis and then others are infected with COVID," he said.
Jonas said based on their observation some COVID-19 patients confined in PGH experience respiratory problems.
"The number of COVID patients with respiratory problems got smaller, those who need ventilators or need to be intubated due to low oxygen, it is very rare. Mostly are arriving critically ill due to other illnesses but they also have COVID. So it seems that COVID is an incidental finding," he said.
He said half of those who are admitted and in critical or severe cases are vaccinated and the other half are unvaccinated but Del Rosario also noted that the unvaccinated patients experience severe COVID-19 conditions. Robina Asido/DMS
