Number of infected healthcare workers hits 10,000

MANILA, Philippines — The number of healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 has hit 10,000, but a majority of them have recovered, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

In its bulletin for COVID-19 as of Oct. 8, the DOH noted that a total of 10,064 frontliners have contracted the virus. Of this number, 9,474 or 94.1 percent have recovered, while 62 or 0.06 percent have died.

A total of 525 or 5.2 percent are considered “active cases” as they have neither been tagged as recovered or as deaths.

“Of these active cases, 323 (61.2 percent) were mild cases; 173 (32.8 percent) were asymptomatic; 21 (four percent) in severe condition and 11 (2.1 percent) in critical condition,” the DOH added.

According to DOH, they have already hired 9,170 frontliners under the agency emergency hiring program to augment the manpower at health facilities.

This means that the DOH is short by 2,681 health workers, as it was given a slot of 11,851 under the hiring program.

Data show the 9,170 hired frontliners were distributed in 345 health facilities. Of these, 40.1 percent went to DOH hospitals while 15.9 percent were dispatched to COVID-19 diagnostic facilities.

Some 15.7 percent were deployed to temporary treatment and monitoring facilities and 13.3 percent were at local government units and other hospitals.

DOH reported that some 6.5 percent were assigned to COVID-19 referral facilities, while 2.9 percent were in private health facilities; 2.1 percent in Mega Ligtas COVID-19 Centers; two percent at the Epidemiological Surveillance Units and 1.5 percent at other health facilities.