BALANGA, Bataan – At least six public and private medical facilities in this province registered full or almost-full bed capacity in the last two days, prompting chiefs of hospitals here to clamor for a more decisive measure “to rest the hospitals and the frontline health workers so as not to completely overwhelm the local health system.”

According to the Online Bed Occupancy Monitoring System of the province, total bed occupancy rate for public hospitals in Bataan is now at an alarming 85.03 percent with private hospitals registering a 69.25 percent occupancy rate while the utilization rate for Intensive Care Units (ICUs) is now at 82.5 percent.

The medical facilities which registered 100 percent bed capacity as of Saturday, Aug. 7, are the Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) Annex while the apex hospital BGHMC Main is at a critical 91.95 percwent occupancy, Mariveles District Hospital (MDH), Mariveles Mental Wellness and General Hospital (MMWGH), Bataan Peninsula Medical Center (BPMC), Maheseco Multi-Purpose Cooperative Hospital, and Isaac and Catalina Medical Center which is now 98.91 percent full.

There are now 1,991 total active cases of COVID-19 in Bataan, 525 deaths, and 12,058 recoveries since the discovery of the first six cases of the Delta variant here last week.