DOH: More health workers catching COVID-19 amid surge

More health workers have been getting infected with COVID-19 amid a fresh surge in infections, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.

A total of 15,662 health workers have tested positive as of March 25, of which 15,047 have recovered while 82 have died.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said cases among health workers are expected to pick up as more COVID-19 patients are admitted to hospitals.

“This March, [cases] increased again. From 474 infections in February, we now have a total of 684 from March 1 to March 25,” Vergeire said during a briefing.

“That is why we reiterate, let’s give the vaccines to our healthcare workers because they are the ones primarily affected and they are the ones most exposed among all of us,” she added.

The Philippines has so far vaccinated over 500,000 individuals—still a long way to go before all 1.7 million health workers receive protection from COVID-19. 

The DOH also advised individuals who contract COVID-19 after getting their first dose not to get the second shot.

“For standardization and effective implementation of adverse events following immunization monitoring and causality investigation, vaccination can be restarted after 90 days with a new first dose of vaccine,” it said.

600,000 more health workers

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH has been working to include in the vaccination masterlist some 600,000 health workers who may not be affiliated with any hospital or clinic.

“As of the other day, we have masterlisted about 1.2 million. We know that our estimate for our healthcare workers is 1.8 million,” she said. “We still need to cover them so that we can finish our healthcare workers before we go on to the next sector.”

The DOH said it has been coordinating with healthcare worker societies to identify all medical professionals who need to be vaccinated.

The Philippines logged a record-high 9,838 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the tally to 702,856 with 580,689 recoveries and 13,149 deaths. — RSJ, GMA News