MANILA — There have been 6,628 health care workers in the Philippines infected with COVID-19, according to Department of Health data as of August 24, Monday.
This is 493 cases higher than the week before, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG).
“The 493 new confirmed cases in the week of Aug. 16-22 is the fourth highest announced by DOH in a single week since April 28, when the agency started regularly publishing information on healthcare workers affected by COVID-19,” ABS-CBN IRG said.
The highest number of cases recorded in a week was 565 from July 26 to August 1. The DOH now only releases detailed health worker infections data every Sunday.
The total as of August 22 (6,499), represents 3% of the 187,199 confirmed cases in the country as of that day. This is lower than last week’s 4%. The percentage of health workers with COVID-19 has gone down significantly although the number of non-health workers infected with COVID-19 continue to rise.
Of the total as of August 22, 88.61% have already recovered while deaths remained at 39. This does not include the Philippine General Hospital doctor who died on Sunday after battling COVID-19 for more than a month.
This brings the number of active cases or health workers still infected with COVID-19 to 701 as of August 22. A majority (71.04%) are mild cases, 28.25% are asymptomatic, 0.43% (3) are in severe condition, and 0.29% (2) are in critical condition.
According to ABS-CBN IRG, doctors still log the most number of fatalities with 7 in 10 deaths among healthcare workers coming from their group.
This is despite the fact that 2,269 nurses tested positive for COVID-19 compared with 1,368 physicians as of Aug. 22.
With 26 out of 39 deaths being physicians, their case fatality rate is now at 1.9% compared to the nurses’ 0.3%. This does not include the latest fatality, which has yet to be added to the official tally.
Midwives placed fifth in the top medical professions with COVID-19, with 140 cases, replacing radiologic technologists, with 136 cases.
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