The Ospital ng Maynila, one of six district hospitals in the capital city, now has 82 beds for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.
In his Capital Report, Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso said they used the time during the temporary closure of the hospital from July 31 to August 9 to increase its COVID-19 bed capacity.
Before the closure, Ospital ng Maynila only had 27 beds for COVID-19 patients, Domagoso said.
"We took advantage... of our medical frontliners resting, so they can have breathing room, to redesign the isolation wards," the Manila mayor said on Aug. 14.
"This is so we can embrace more of our fellow Manila city residents who contracted COVID-19," he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
New machines
Domagoso said the city has acquired two more COVID-19 testing machines -- a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing machine which will beef the capability of Sta. Ana Hospital and a serology testing machine – it’s fifth - which is now stationed at Ospital ng Tondo.
The serology machine which processes blood samples with an accuracy rate of 99.6 percent, will increase the city's serology COVID-19 testing capacity to 110,000 tests per month.
Its other serology machines are at Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, Ospital ng Sampaloc, Ospital ng Maynila, and Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital.
Data from the city government shows that they have conducted 75,210 swab tests and 26,174 serology tests as of Aug. 14.
After over a thousand COVID-19 active cases were reported in Manila last week, the figure is down to 697 as of Aug. 14. Manila has 4,972 recoveries and 259 deaths.