Remembering Filipino Health Care Workers Who Died on the Frontlines

By Myara Poliarco and Manuel M. Dayrit

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jollene Levid listened as her mother said goodbye to her friend, Rosary Castro-Olega. In her hospital room, loved ones could only reach Castro-Olega through a speakerphone as she lay on life support. She ultimately became the first health care worker in Los Angeles county to die of COVID-19.

In the weeks that followed, more Filipino nurses died — many unnamed and uncounted.

Inspired by this loss, Levid — a Filipina American from a family of nurses — created KANLUNGAN, which means “sanctuary” in Filipino. The online memorial honors the more than 200 Filipino health care workers who lost their lives globally during the pandemic.

Frontlines Abroad and At Home

This All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day, or Undas, marks five years since the start of the pandemic — an important moment to pause and remember the Filipino health care workers who lost their lives.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, the World Health Organization estimated that 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers died worldwide.

In the United States, Filipinos make up only four percent of registered nurses but accounted for nearly a third of all nurse deaths from the virus. This was partly because health care workers of color are more likely to be employed in direct patient roles and in under-resourced facilities such as nursing homes. Similar patterns emerged in the United Kingdom, where many reported working without adequate personal protective equipment yet continued their shifts out of duty and necessity.

The situation in the Philippines was equally challenging. Overworked and underpaid health care workers took to the streets to demand long-delayed benefits and hazard pay. By October 2021, the Philippine Department of Health had confirmed 105 health care worker deaths due to COVID-19.

Faith, Trust, and Health

The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly exposed the risks that health care workers faced across the globe and the gaps in trust within health systems.

The Georgetown-Lancet Commission Faith, Trust, and Health is exploring how collaboration between faith communities and health systems can heal this divide.

As members of the commission — Poliarco as a part of the Secretariat and Dayrit as a Commissioner — we aim to translate lessons from the frontlines, including the sacrifices of people like Castro-Olega, into strategies that reinforce health systems worldwide.

In Dayrit’s decades-long experience in public health, from working in rural villages in Mindanao to leading initiatives at the World Health Organization, he has seen that lasting impact comes from relationships built on trust.

During COVID-19, that trust had many dimensions: citizens relied on health care workers despite confusion and chaos; the vaccination campaign succeeded despite anti-vaccine advocacy; and, amid political divisions and skepticism of the government, Filipinos trusted one another to curb the spread of disease.

That trust, fragile yet enduring, was sustained by the people who stood at the frontlines. Their example reminds us that health systems are only as strong as the human connections that uphold them.

Restoring that trust is a collective responsibility.

For us, this Undas, we remember that the health of our communities depends on the same compassion and solidarity these modern-day saints lived and died for.

Myara Poliarco is a graduate student at Georgetown University and an alumna of Ateneo de Manila University.

Manuel M. Dayrit is the former secretary of health of the Philippines and dean of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.