An average of two to five healthcare workers at the state-run Philippine General Hospital (PGH) contracts coronavirus disease daily, an official said on Wednesday.

PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario, in the "Laging Handa" public briefing, said that PGH usually tests its workers, especially those who have "significant exposure" to COVID-19 patients.

"They just go to our health service and they will be tested. At least in a day, sometimes two to five healthcare workers will turn out to be positive," he said.

Del Rosario recalled that sometime mid-March up to the first week of April, many healthcare workers in the hospital were infected with COVID-19.

"Most of them got it from their communities, some got it in the workplace, but majority were infected in the community and they exposed others to them," he said.

But despite that, del Rosario said they can still cop as PGH has started implementing stricter health protocols.

Based on PGH's daily census, Del Rosario said for the last two weeks, at least five COVID-19 patients died in the hospital.

"There were times that the (fatalities) are even higher, around seven to 10, but more or less five patients who just arrived or has been admitted die," he said.

He noted that some who died were still at the emergency room or declared dead on arrival, while the rest were confined at the ICU.

As of Wednesday, he said PGH has admitted 220 COVID-19 patients out of 250-bed capacity.

He said the 30 ICU beds have been fully utilized for quite sometime.

This is also the case in emergency room, where patients who arrived there are also in severe to critical condition, he said.

PGH is one of the largest COVID-19 referral hospitals in Metro Manila. Celerina Monte/DMS