Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 23) — Coronavirus infections among healthcare workers at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) have gone down as more of them get their coronavirus shots, the country’s largest COVID-19 referral facility said.
“When we were already rolling out our vaccination, we saw a significant decline (in COVID-19 cases among our healthcare workers),” PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario told CNN Philippines’ The Final Word on Friday.
In a Facebook post, he also noted that among the 6,052 fully protected PGH staff, only 23 caught the coronavirus. This is after a recorded surge in March, when the government began its vaccination program that prioritized medical frontliners.
“Comparing the number of infections in 2020 (without vaccines) and 2021 (with vaccines) in May and June, one can conclude that the vaccine works,” Del Rosario said.
Aside from fewer cases, Del Rosario said the vaccines also protected fully vaccinated hospital workers from having severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19. The workers were given either Sinovac or AstraZeneca, he added.
Del Rosario also said almost all cases were either asymptomatic or mild while some were moderate. All of them have recovered, he noted.
“We felt like the vaccine helped our healthcare workers to be able to fight off the COVID and at least be protected from severe or critical condition,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PGH is not yet encouraging the use of booster shots given the results of its analysis.
“With this data, it only proves that you are protected…By doing a booster shot right now, you are depriving some of those who haven’t even gotten the first dose of the vaccine,” Del Rosario said.
