3 in 10 Cavite frontliners down with COVID-19

The frontline force in Cavite, the province with highest number of COVID-19 cases next to Metro Manila, has been reduced by 30% after a number of them got infected, Governor Jonvic Remulla said on Friday, April 16. 

In his Facebook Live broadcast, the governor wasn’t clear if he was referring only to health workers or to all types of workers delivering frontline services. 

He mentioned, however, that among capitol employees alone, 60 got infected and 4 died the past month. 

Ninety-five percent of intensive care unit beds across the province were occupied, he added. 

On Saturday, April 17, Dr Nonie John Dalisay, Cavite’s provincial health officer, said the General Emilio Aguinaldo Memorial Hospital (GEAMH) in Trece Martires City had just resumed operations, with a skeleton staff, after a week of temporarily not accepting patients due to full capacity and workers getting sick. 

GEAMH alone has 28 health workers who were asymptomatic, 3 showed symptoms, and 5 admitted. The hospital has 7 positive cases admitted and 7 probable cases as of Saturday.

In the past days, Remulla reported that all of public hospitals in the province were at full capacity. These included the Ospital ng Dasmariñas, Southern Tagalog Regional Hospital in Bacoor, and the Carsigma District Hospital in General Mariano Alvarez.

As of April 16, Cavite has had a total of 33,487 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began – the highest in Calabarzon – with 25,007 recoveries and 810 deaths. It has 7,600 active cases, according to the Department of Health in Calabarzon. 

Remulla said in his Friday FB Live broadcast that the provincial government had set aside P750 million, while the cities and municipalities had pooled P1.5 billion to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for the larger population. The target, he said, would be to inoculate 2 million in Cavite by February or March 2022. – with a report from Dennis Abrina/Rappler.com