Private hospitals in Cebu City are nearly overwhelmed with patients amid the increasing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the area, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Thursday.
"Ang private hospitals ang nagkakaroon ng critical na level ngayon ," said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
Vergeire cited as an example the Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu City wherein the current occupancy rate is now at 98 percent.
The Health official likened the situation of Cebu City to Metro Manila during the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“If you remember back when we started here in the National Capital Region, ang una din na na-overwhelmed sa atin would be the private hospitals,” said Vergeire.
“This is the same thing that is happening right now in Cebu (City) kung saan ang private hospitals nila ay medyo nao-overwhelm pati sa health human resources because a lot of their staff already are in quarantine,” she added.
Aside from some members of the “Doctors to the Barrios” program who volunteered to help, Vergeire said that they were also able to get “specialists'' through the help of medical organizations to aid in the government’s COVID-19 response in Cebu City.
This includes the health human resources of the Philippine Society of Medical Specialists, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Red Cross.
“Nakakuha tayo ng mga specialists from societies...Yung doctors from the military pinadala na doon and also nurses are being deployed already in Cebu para magkaroon tayo ng additional workforce there ,” she said.
Based on the DOH COVID-19 tracker, there are 4,746 confirmed cases in Cebu City as of June 30. The area’s critical care utilization rate is at 62.45 percent, with intensive care utilization of 55.83 percent; isolation bed utilization of 62.45 percent; and mechanical ventilator utilization of 41.90 percent.