Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 3) – The Department of Health on Friday assured the public all of its retained hospitals in Metro Manila continue to operate despite the COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers.
The DOH, however, admitted that some of these hospitals have suspended elective surgeries and outpatient department operations to augment the critical services needed for the recovery of coronavirus-stricken medical workers.
“HCWs (Healthcare workers) infected with COVID-19 are being provided support by facilitating hospital or isolation facility admission,” the department said in a statement.
As of Tuesday, 15,907 healthcare workers in the country have contracted COVID-19. The infections saw an increase of over 1,000 new cases in March 2021 alone.
The DOH said it has enough funds to hire additional manpower and purchase medicines, and it can maximize hospital resources in referral of patients to appropriate facilities.
It also urged the public to utilize telemedicine consultations for non-urgent medical needs to avoid overcrowding in hospitals.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Thursday reported that 1,344 medical frontliners have already received two doses of vaccines as of Tuesday. This means only 0.074% of the estimated 1.8 million healthcare workers in the country have been protected against severe COVID-19 and death.
The DOH-retained hospitals in the National Capital Region are Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, National Center for Mental Health, National Children’s Hospital, and Philippine Orthopedic Center.
Also in the list are Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Rizal Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Tondo Medical Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, and Philippine Heart Center.
The DOH appealed to other healthcare workers to get vaccinated to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in these hospitals any further.
The country recorded 15,310 new COVID-19 cases on Friday – a new all-time high – but the DOH said 3,709 of these infections were part of a backlog from two days ago.
