COVID-19 bed capacity in hospitals not yet in critical level
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Tuesday, March 16, downplayed reports that the country’s hospitals are in a critical level in terms of bed capacity for coronavirus disease patients.
During a virtual press briefing, the Palace official also said that there is no reason yet for the country to revert to the enhanced community quarantine the government declared a year ago.
(OPS / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“For now, there seems to be no reason for us to declare ECQ like before because our hospitals are not overwhelmed yet. We are not in the yellow line so we are not yet in a critical level. We can still treat serious medical cases,” Roque said in Filipino.
This was opposed to the report from the Lung Center of the Philippines, which said that its beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients are now 80-percent occupied.
Even the Department of Health (DOH) said over the weekend that 20 of the National Capital Region’s (NCR) hospitals are under critical level, which meant that the allotted hospital beds for COVID-19 patients are already at 85 percent.
Of the hospitals under “critical” level, four have already reached 100 percent bed occupancy, namely: Bernardino General Hospital I, F.Y. Manalo Medical Foundation, Inc., Ospital ng Makati, and Valenzuela Citicare Medical Center Timog Hilaga Providence Group, Inc.
But Roque insisted that the government learned a lot over the past year in terms of prioritizing serious medical cases, putting in place critical care measures, and opening isolation facilities for suspected COVID-19 cases.
“Marami na po tayong alam ngayon na hindi natin alam noong March 15 noong tayo po’y nag-impose ng ECQ (Well, we know a lot today that we don’t know last March 15 when we first imposed ECQ).”
Roque, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, noted that the government is now imposing granular lockdowns in areas with high COVID-19 positive cases.
“Ginagamit pa rin natin ang lockdown bilang isang instrumento po para mapabagal ang kalat ng COVID-19 pero ito po’y sa mga lugar na mayroong mga matataas na kaso (We are using the granular lockdown as one instrument to slow down the transmission of COVID-19. But this is only done in areas with high number of cases),” he added.