23 Kidney Institute staff positive for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Twenty-three health workers at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute have tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but they are mostly asymptomatic, an NKTI official said yesterday.

NKTI director Rosa Marie Liquete said in a phone interview that the 23 infections were recorded from March 13 to April 26. 

The index case is a doctor who was assigned at the triage in the hospital’s COVID-19 field.  

Two nurses and one attendant also got infected during the time when three positive COVID-19 patients were under their care at the intensive care unit. The three were also assigned at the COVID-19 field.

Liquete says that of the 23 infected staff, only three to five are manifesting symptoms and no one is in critical condition. The rest are asymptomatic. 

According to Liquete, there are 78 COVID-19 patients at NKTI, but they cannot be transferred to COVID-19 centers because they are in a critical
state due to pre-existing conditions.  

She gave assurance that the NKTI has been implementing infection prevention and control protocols, including limiting the interaction of their regular patients with possible COVID-19 cases.

This is done primarily by setting up a tent outside the hospital where they conduct close to 80 dialysis procedures at any given time.

“By setting up a tent, our dialysis patients no longer need to enter our facilities. Most of our patients need critical care and we don’t want them to be exposed in any way to COVID-19,” she added.

But Liquete said there was a delay in the results of the swab tests done on patients who came to the emergency room (ER) and this could have contributed to the infection of the staff.

Based on NKTI data, of the 700 ER patients tested, 62 turned out positive for the virus while the results of some 100 tests remain pending.

She added had the test results come out early, they would have been able to transfer the positive patients to COVID-19 centers early on or before their conditions progressed.  

10 hospitals have infected staff

Ten of 70 hospitals under the Department of Health (DOH) now have employees who are infected with COVID-19, an official said yesterday.

At a media briefing, DOH Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire reported that aside from the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH), Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and NKTI, seven other DOH hospitals are now reporting cases.

These are Bataan General Hosptial and Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Mandaluyong City Medical Center, Tondo Medical Center, Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, Rizal Medical Center, Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Medical Hospital and Baguio General Hospital.

“Almost one in five cases of COVID-19 is health worker. This is saddening because if this continues, time may come when no one will take care of our patients,” she noted.

DOH data show the NCMH has 65 cases of COVID-19 while RITM has 45.  

Vergeire gave assurance the DOH supports health workers by providing private and public hospitals with protective personal equipment and by coming up with guidelines on infection prevention and control measures.

“Our health workers are our heroes in this war against COVID-19. If not for them, we will never succeed in containing this epidemic,” she added.

Records show that as of yesterday, 1,694 of the 8,772 confirmed cases in the country are health workers. A total of 256 of them have recovered.

Vergeire meanwhile said the DOH and the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID) have been closely monitoring reports abroad that COVID-19 may also cause stroke, blood clotting and ring rashes.

She added that depending on what will be known about the virus, they are open to adjusting the guidelines on the disease so that the country can implement effective response.

“COVID-19 is evolving and every day, we learn something new about the virus. Our guidelines will be adjusted to include whatever we will learn about it,” she maintained.