The intensive care unit (ICU) of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is 90 percent full, its spokesperson said Wednesday, Aug. 4.
In an interview over CNN Philippines, PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said the hospital is seeing a "significant" increase in admission due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The largest COVID-19 referral hospital in the country is now treating 154 infected patients as of Wednesday, up from 100 from two weeks ago.
"There are patients waiting to be admitted and patients waiting to be transferred from other hospitals. Our ICU is 90 percent full and we're also seeing more pediatric COVID cases," Del Rosario said.
He noted that some of the patients waiting to be admitted are "severely or critically ill."
"We do not have ICU beds for them, we're trying to make arrangements, waiting for some of our ICU patients to get discharged," he added.
However, Del Rosario assured that all of the patients will get admitted once PGH can accommodate them.
The state-run hospital has 225 beds for COVID-19, 40 of these for ICU.
"There are about 10 patients who are critically ill waiting to be transferred to PGH. At the same time we also have patients who are severely ill coming from their households or from the local government units," Del Rosario said.
Out of PGH's 154 COVID-19 patients, half of them are severe cases, while about 20 are critically ill.
"In the adult ICU, we barely have enough , we can only give about 40 for the adult ICU. Yesterday when we were looking at the census, it's almost 90 percent full for the adult ICU. Konti na lang po ang natitira (There are very few beds left), siguro (maybe about) five or six."