PGH under crisis mode, nearly 40 percent of health workers contract COVID-19
by Rowz Fajardo
The Philippine General Hospital (PGH), one of the country’s leading COVID-19 referral hospitals, is now operating in a crisis mode as 310 of its COVID-19 health workers tested positive for COVID-19 during the past week. Last January 5, PGH saw six times more admissions in just 10 days as COVID-19 cases continued to climb nationwide. From the 30 admitted COVID-19 patients last December 25, hospital admissions due to COVID-19 jumped to 203 after a spike in cases following records of the most transmissible coronavirus variant, Omicron, in the country.
Surge in cases
According to PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario, the hospital currently has almost 40 percent of its 2,000 health workers and ancillary staff members, involved in its COVID-19 operations, who are either infected with the SARS-CoV-2 or are now in quarantine after their exposure to the virus.
“We found that for every one health worker who had COVID, about 3–4 workers have high-risk exposure to either a patient, household member, or co-worker,” Del Rosario explained.
He also mentioned that if the conventional quarantine protocol is used, where health workers have to complete 10 days of quarantine, the hospital will run out of doctors, nurses, and support staff to take care of patients and that the hospital will be under a crisis mode.
Furthermore, according to Del Rosario, some critical areas have as high as 80 percent of their workforce pulled out because of COVID-19 infection or exposure.
“Napakalaki pong bilang ‘yun. Lalo na sa key areas, napipilay po kami. Marami ang nagka-quarantine, kailangan i-quarantine dahil na-expose sila,” Del Rosario shared.
Operation under crisis mode
According to an advisory from the PGH’s Hospital Infection Control Unit (HICU), due to the current situation, the hospital has no other option but to conduct operations in a crisis mode and employ contingency measures as COVID and non-COVID-19 patients continue to seek to consult at PGH in overwhelming numbers.
The hospital unit added that in order to respond to the situation, PGH revised its protocols based on provisions of the Department of Health Circular №2022–002, which allows them to shorten the quarantine and isolation period for fully vaccinated healthcare workers and select COVID-19 cases.
Moreover, the HICU stated that health workers who were quarantined because of exposure, at any stage of their removal from their unit, shall report back to work as long as they are not showing symptoms.
“COVID testing is not required. Personnel should wear N95 masks or elastomeric respirators, until instructed otherwise. Eating with any other personnel at any time is prohibited. As soon as symptoms appear, personnel should report to their unit’s safety officer for further instructions,” HICU stated.
On the other hand, quarantined health workers who develop mild symptoms should promptly undergo an RT-PCR test. Those who test positive should be placed in isolation and those who are not should report back to work.
“COVID positive personnel, whether symptomatic or not, will continue the previous protocol of 10-day isolation, from the time of first symptom or positive testing, returning to work on the 11th day without the need for a second test,” the PGH unit added.
The PGH HICU said the guidelines may still be revised depending on the COVID-19 situation.
