Covid takes toll on medical frontliners

Over 2,000 medical frontliners in Western Visayas have contracted Covid-19, based on the latest data of the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV-CHD).

In an interview with Radyo Pilipinas, Dr. Mary Jane Roches Juanico, Medical Officer IV and head of the Infectious Disease Division of DOH-6, confirmed that medical healthcare workers in the region who tested positive for Covid-19 totaled 2,659 while 12 died as of January 17,2021.

The number includes 1,324 medical healthcare workers and 1,335 non-medical workers. Non-medical workers are those who are working in health facilities but do not directly engage with Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, DOH-6 workers who contracted the virus climbed to 27, according to Juanico.

Juanico said 25 of the positive employees experienced mild symptoms while the two manifested severe symptoms.

Currently, 11 of the employees are admitted in the hospital while the other patients are in the quarantine facility and the remaining employees are under strict home quarantine.

Most of the employees who were infected with Covid-19 were surveillance officers who were in-charge of sourcing out information from Covid-19 patients for the contact tracing.

 

“It is possible that they acquired the virus while performing their duties and nadala nila ang virus sa opisina,” Juanico said. (ERS)