Caloocan City Mayor Oca Malapitan on Friday night said its two local government-run hospitals can no longer accommodate patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the city continues to report high cases of new infections.
Malapitan said some patients are already camping outside the Caloocan City Medical Center and Caloocan City Medical Center-North and waiting for admission as the two facilities' rooms are already fully occupied. He added, the same situation also occurs at the national government's COVID-19-referral hospital, the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.
"Meron kaming dalawang hospital dito, eh nasa labas na yung mga tao. Di na namin kaya i-accommodate (We have two local government-run hospitals here, where patients are already waiting outside for admission. We can no longer accommodate them)," he said over DZRH interview, "Minsan nakapila nalang sila sa labas, pagbakante sa loob naipapasok namin at saka pag nakita na talagang positive sa COVID (Whenever there are vacant rooms and we see that they are confirmed COVID-19 patients, we're trying to admit them immediately)."
Malapitan said as much as they want to prioritize patients who are senior citizens, they can barely do so as there are really "many" patients.
Currently, he said, the city is still reporting hundreds of daily new COVID-19 cases despite the reimposition of the enhanced community quarantine on Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
As of 5 p.m. of April 9, Caloocan has 1,419 active virus cases.
"Nag 200 kami (We report 200 new cases daily)," he said, "Mataas pa rin ang resulta everyday. Pero syempre, di mo naman makukuha agad 'yung magandang resulta. Siguro next week, makikita mo 'yung pagbabago (Our daily cases are still high. But of course, we cannot immediately see the good result of ECQ. Perhaps, by next week, we can see changes)."
But Malapitan said he favors relaxing the quarantine restrictions as many are already suffering economically.