“Nitong mga nakaraang araw ay paunti na nang paunti ang nakikita nating health care workers na nagpopositibo,” Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in her press on May 15.
[These past few days, we see less and less of health workers testing positive for COVID-19.]
Those who followed the regular virtual presser of the DOH late in the afternoon would have heard every word of this line repeated all week.
The script is unchanging, whether reported new cases among health workers that day increased or decreased and every day in the last week, new cases did not go below 40.
In fact, the Health official has repeatedly said this much earlier. But Vergeire may have been building up to the graph that she presented in the May 15 DOH press briefing. She said it showed that cases among health workers have been decreasing since April 11.
“Nagpapakita ng patuloy na pagbaba ng mga bagong kaso ng COVID-19 sa ating mga health workers mula noong April 11. Makikita po rito ang mga kaso ayon sa propesyon ng health workers base sa onset of illness,” said Vergeire of the graph she presented in her briefing.
[We see continued decline of new cases of COVID-19 among our health workers from April 11. We can see the cases in order of the profession of the health workers based on the onset of illness.]
So, are COVID-19 cases among health workers declining?
There are a few things we can understand from what DOH has presented the public about the cases among health workers. We list them below.
First, what we must mind about DOH data on cases, testing, etc.:
- COVID-19 cases among health workers are reported by the DOH one day late (not on the same day)
- Positive cases are higher than the confirmed cases DOH reports on a daily basis. Right now, DOH confirmed cases of 12,091 (as of May 15) is only 74% of positive cases at 16,393 (May 13), a difference of 4,302.
- In the part of the DOH virtual pressers announcing the COVID-19 cases among workers, they do not mention or specify the new cases that day. One has to do their own math: get the number from the previous day and get the difference with the cases reported on the present day.
Also, as of this publishing, the May 13 report is the latest testing data available as of May 15.
What we should note and can understand from the DOH data on health workers confirmed COVID-19 cases:
1. May 14 was one of the days that reported a spike in cases among health workers in the last 10 days.
Eighty case were reported by the DOH against the total new confirmed cases that day of 258. Confirmed cases among health workers accounted for 31% of total new cases on May 15.
2. COVID-19 cases among health workers doubled from May 13 to 14.
On May 14, there were 80 health workers who was confirmed positive by the DOH, while the previous day there were only 40.
3. Confirmed COVID-19 cases among health workers have risen to 2,245.
This is 18.9% of the total cases in the country. Almost one out of five COVID-19 cases in the country is a health worker.
Total COVID-19 cases among health workers (hw) in the last 5 days
4. New COVID-19 cases among health workers have been going up and down in the last five days. It has not dropped below 40.
New COVID-19 cases among health workers (hw) in the last 5 days
5. As seen in the table above, reported confirmed cases among health workers in the last 5 days account for 15% to 31% of the total new cases reported by the DOH.
6. There are days when there are more new cases among health workers than the recoveries.
New COVID-19 cases and recoveries among health workers (hw) in the last 5 days
7. Nurses confirmed for COVID-19 top 800 on May 14
Of the 2,245 reported infected as of May 14, 812 are nurses, 660 doctors, 137 nursing assistants, 81 medical technologists, 42 radiologic technologists and 260 non-medical staff in health care facilities.
Higher than average in the region or even China
On April 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Philippines’ high number of COVID-19 positive health workers is “worrisome.” Health workers accounted for 13% then, compared to the 18% to 20% of late.
WHO-Western Pacific Region COVID-19 incident manager Dr. Abdi Mahamud said the number of medical workers infected is higher than the average in the region and even higher than China where cases first spread.
“The worrisome trend we are seeing in the Philippines where the percentage of about 13 percent is worrisome. In our region, it is around 2-3 percent… The Philippines is a bit of an outlier,” he said in a virtual press briefing.
WHO emphasized the importance of proper protective gear for the frontliners.
It would be a more expectant occasion when recoveries are higher than new cases or even the total cases. Or of course, when there will be no more cases of health workers infected with COVID-19 reported.
May 15 is the last day of the regime of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The only three assessed high-risk areas of Metro Manila, Laguna and Cebu City will shift to modified ECQ with the same stay-at-home general rule and some businesses opening up, while other areas will move to general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ.
