Zero COVID-19 infections among health workers in 13 days

CEBU, Philippines —  None of the healthcare workers in both public and private hospitals have contracted COVID-19 for the past 13 days, data of the Cebu City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) showed.

This is the city’s longest streak of zero infection among health workers since May as per EOC’s monitoring, said Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera.

“This is the first time in the last 13 days na wala ta’y COVID transmission among health workers in hospitals and infirmaries since May,” said Garganera, who also sits as deputy chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force-EOC in the city.

Garganera said strict implementation of health protocols in hospitals plays a vital role in containing the further spread of the virus.

“This is good news. This tells us that along with the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases in the community, there is also a great improvement of the implementation of health protocols in our hospitals,” he said.

Despite the decreasing COVID cases, EOC continues to monitor all healthcare facilities, from infirmaries to tertiary hospitals.

“This tells us that dili gyud na gauge nga abi kay nigamay na ang atong kaso na we have to relax and we have to lower our guards. No, no. The more that we have to sustain it,” said Garganera.

Prior to this development, he said, 15 employees of a hospital got infected.

Garganera said they met with hospital representatives to look into the transmission considering that the facility had only a small number of COVID-related admission.

He said the transmission was attributed to complacency.

“This is not the time to be complacent because complacency is our number one enemy,” he said.

In the Department of Health-7’s case bulletin for November 4, Cebu City currently has 154 active cases including six new cases for that day. — KQD (FREEMAN)