SYDNEY, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Amid surging COVID-19 community transmission in the Marshall Islands, authorities are asking healthcare workers back to work if they are only experiencing mild COVID symptoms, as the healthcare system is hard hit.
Secretary of health and human services of the Pacific island country Jack Niedenthal said on Monday that the continued attack of the virus on healthcare workers caused the delay of their regular health reporting work, crowds in clinics, and closures of some public sporting sites.
"You can't have healthcare if you don't have healthcare workers. We weren't left with a lot of choices, and if our workers are willing to come back because they are only suffering from mild symptoms, they are only assigned tasks that don't involve patient care," he said.
Niedenthal said last Saturday that there have been 213 medical workers being tested positive for COVID-19, and many of them are doctors, and the nation expected the outbreak to continue to gain strength.
He said over 1,000 cases were detected in the capital, Majuro, on last Saturday, almost double from the previous day. And about 75 percent of the people being tested are positive, which is "an incredibly high positivity rate."
The country reported 571 new cases in the last 24 hours till 3:00 p.m. local time on Aug. 14, and cumulative cases reached 3,036 with seven hospitalizations and two deaths since October 2020.
The government temporarily closed the Reproductive Health Clinic due to the current situation, and urged pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Some Alternative Care Sites (ACS) have been designed to test and treat patients with minor COVID-19 symptoms, such as scratchy throat, a cough or fever. Individuals who are experiencing severe symptoms still need to report to the emergency rooms at the hospital.
Niedenthal said they are planning to add another ACS to release the pressure on the health system. As over 200 medical staff sick with COVID-19 would begin to recover in the next few days, the sites will be more organized. ■
