The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is seeing a decline in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) admission as virus cases in Metro Manila decrease, its spokesperson said Tuesday, Oct. 19.
In an interview with ANC, PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario bared that PGH no longer sees "long lines in their emergency rooms."
"Even if go through our ERs, they are readily accepted in a matter of one to two days into our wards," Del Rosario said.
As of Tuesday, 170 out of PGH's 300 COVID-19 beds remain occupied.
"That's a big improvement from used to be taking patients of about 300. At one time we had 350 patients, so we're steadily seeing the decline of COVID admissions," he added.
"Now that we're taking care of less patients the demand for high-flow oxygen machines or ventilators has decreased so we're able to manage more and supply them better. We pretty much have all the medicines except for this tocilizumab, which up to now we're waiting to be available in the country. But other than that, we're okay," the spokesperson assured.
Now that their health workers are treating fewer patients, Del Rosario added that they are now able "to cope," but stressed PGH is still in need of volunteer doctors.
However, Del Rosario said its intensive care unit (ICU) is currently operating at 100 percent capacity.
"For ICU, since our patients are quite sick, our ICU remains to be full. Most of the time, the moment there's an opening, a new patient has to be moved into the ICU," Del Rosario said.
"In terms of ICU utilization at PGH, we're still at 100 percent. But the utilization rate for the whole COVID hospital now is down to 60 percent. Which is pretty much in agreement to what's being seen in other hospitals," he noted.
The ICU bed utilization in Metro Manila was at 59 percent, the Department of Health reported on Monday, Oct. 18.