Ninety-seven percent of Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) intensive care unit (ICU) beds were in use, its spokesperson said Tuesday, Aug. 31 as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases continue to soar.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, LCP spokesperson Dr. Norbert Francisco said its ICU capacity is nearly filled as the Philippines sees fresh COVID-19 spike.
"Napupuno na po ulit (It's filling up again), we have been expanding our operational capacity for COVID-dedicated beds... These dedicated beds for COVID have always been in the brink of full capacity over the past few days, weeks," Francisco said.
"If we get a little vacancy of a handful of beds available, they get filled up immediately from patients waiting in the emergency room," he noted.
According to Francisco, 154 of its 182 COVID-19 dedicated beds are already occupied.
LCP's isolation room, meanwhile, is already 100 percent occupied.
The hospital has also expanded its emergency room strictly for COVID-19 cases, from 12 beds to 29 beds.
"Right now there are 10 patients waiting in the emergency room, some are intubated, some are on high-flow oxygen machines, and about half of them have no available rooms yet," Francisco said.
The latest data from the Department of Health showed that 66 percent of the total 1,400 ICU beds in Metro Manila are already utilized.
Meanwhile, 70 percent of the 14,800 ward beds nationwide are in use, placing the ward beds under the high risk category.