Cagayan health worker dead, 30 infected after vaccination

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines — A medical frontliner has died while 30 other health workers at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) in this city, who have been inoculated against COVID-19, have tested positive for the virus.

The Department of Health (DOH)-Cagayan Valley regional office said there is no reason to believe that the death was caused by the vaccine. The fatality was inoculated on March 12.

CVMC chief Glenn Matthew Baggao said those who tested positive for the virus are asymptomatic and isolated in the hospital’s quarantine facility.

Baggao said the 30 others who were infected are among more than 1,500 CVMC employees who received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on March 7 and were set to get their second dose on April 5.

Health experts have repeatedly assured the public that the vaccine cannot cause an infection after a health worker, who was immunized on March 5, died after a few days.

The DOH regional office said it has received 31,980 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, of which 21,419 had been administered.

Medical frontliners are racing against time to complete their inoculation amid a surge in cases.

The CVMC, Southern Isabela Medical Center in Santiago, Isabela and Region 2 Trauma and Medical Center in Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya have reached 100 percent occupancy rate, according to the DOH.

Hospitals in Laguna are almost full of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Ramil Hernandez said yesterday.

“Napupuno na po ‘yung ating mga hospitals, mga private po natin at mga government-owned,” Hernandez said in an interview over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

There are at least 2,285 active COVID-19 cases in Laguna. The most number of patients are in Calamba, with 436; Sta. Rosa, 319, and San Pedro, 283.

Meanwhile, Mayor Crisostomo Garbo of Mabalacat, Pampanga tested positive for COVID-19 last Saturday.

Garbo said he had himself tested after he experienced fever. He urged everyone who had been exposed to him in the past several days to undergo swab test.

Cabanatuan City Mayor Myca Elizabeth Vergara is in isolation after her driver and staff members were infected.

“I have informed most of the people whom I interacted with in the past week... A full-scale contact tracing is ongoing,” Vergara said.

In Negros Occidental, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson issued an executive order requiring a negative swab test result and quarantine for all those visiting the province. – Ric Sapnu, Emmanuel Tupas, Gilbert Bayoran