ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider COVID ICU beds of SPMC now fully occupied

COVID ICU beds of SPMC now fully occupied

Published May 26, 2021 09:08 pm

DAVAO CITY – The intensive care unit (ICU) of the government-run Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients has been fully occupied while the utilization rate of its isolation units has reached critical level as the city grapples with new infections, a health official of Davao City said.

Dr. Ashley Lopez, acting head of City Health Office (CHO), said in his program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) Wednesday, expressed alarm that the current COVID-19 surge has overwhelmed the SPMC and called on the private hospitals in the city to open more facilities to cater to new active cases.

He said that new cases in the city are fast increasing while the recovery rate is slowing down.

The SPMC is the biggest COVID-19 referral hospital in the city for moderate, severe, and critical cases.

As of May 25, SPMC reported that its 35-bed ICU for COVID-19 have been fully occupied while 254 out of 292 isolation beds have been used, recording a utilization rate of 86.99%.I

In a separate text message, Lopez said the city government has a total of 15 isolation facilities with around 1,500 beds.

“We are encouraging our private hospitals to open up and allocate COVID to accept patients who can no longer be accommodated at the SPMC,” he said.

Meantime, Mayor Sara Duterte said the city government may likely reimpose the requirement of food and medicine (FM) pass to access essential goods and services to restrict the movement of the people as health authorities sounded the alarm after seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases here.

“That is a possibility, and can be discussed at the level of our Davao City COVID-19 Task Force. We’re ready with our FM pass system. They have told us a long time ago that they are ready and that they have distributed all their materials,” she said.

Last March 15, the mayor lifted the requirement of FM pass while the public only needed their Safe Davao QR (DQR) codes upon entry to business establishments to access essential goods and services, when the number of COVID-19 cases started going down.

As of May 25, Department of Health-Davao reported 271 new cases, bringing the total cases to 26,413, with 2,072 active, 23,268 recoveries, and 1,073 deaths in the region.

Out of the total, Davao City, which reported the highest COVID-19 cases in Mindanao, tallied 16,413 cases, with 1,111 active, 14,251 recoveries, and 739 deaths. Davao de Oro reported 1,830 cases, Davao del Norte with 4,907, Davao del Sur with 1,752, Davao Occidental with 264, and Davao Oriental with 1,559.

Related Tags

covid-19 SPMC davao city
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.