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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Villar's target: Reduce mega treatment facility occupancy rate to below 60 percent

Villar's target: Reduce mega treatment facility occupancy rate to below 60 percent

Published May 4, 2021 02:43 pm

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary and isolation czar Mark Villar wants to slash the occupancy rate of COVID-19 mega treatment facilities in the country to less than 60 percent in the coming weeks.

(Photo courtesy of the Department of Public Works and Highways)

In order to achieve this, he said the DPWH will continue to build more temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) to give hospitals much-needed breathing room amid the high daily cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“Sa ngayon 60 percent, noong last meeting po natin, nasa 70 percent halos ‘yong occupancy rate natin at ang target po talaga is ibaba up to less than 60 percent (At present, we have a 60 percent occupancy rate, during the last meeting it was around 70 percent and our target is to bring it down to less than 60 percent)” Villar said during President Duterte's "Talk to the Nation" public address late Monday night, May 3.

“At tuloy-tuloy naman ang pagtatayo natin ng centers and definitely hindi tayo titigil until magkaroon tayo ng buffer sa ating medical facilities (We are also continuously building centers and definitely we will not stop until we give our medical facilities the buffer it needs),” he added.

While the national occupancy rate of all quarantine facilities is a very manageable 21 percent, the occupancy rate in the National Capital Region (NCR)--the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines--is at 50.97 percent.

“Pero maganda po ‘yong trend dahil pababa na po ang occupancy rate dahil last month mahigit 60 percent, ngayon po 50 percent (But the trend is actually quite positive coming from last month's occupancy rate of 60 percent, it is now down to 50 percent),” the secretary noted.

At present, there are a total of 662 operational COVID-related facilities in the country, with a 24,513-bed capacity. Of this, 10 are modular hospitals with a 239-bed capacity each.

The "pop-up" or modular hospitals serve as an extension to actual hospitals in handling severe cases of COVID-19.

Villar said the DPWH aims to build up to 816 COVID facilities nationwide, with a total bed capacity of 27,280.

Related Tags

Department of Public Works and Highways Mark Villar QUARANTINE FACILITIES DPWH isolation
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