The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday, Jan. 21, that 32,744 more people have been infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The new cases pushed the number of active cases across the country to 291,618. The country's caseload has already reached 3,357,083 since the pandemic started in 2020.
Majority of the cases were still detected in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon.
Most of the patients who are still sick or 277,833 are experiencing mild symptoms. There are 9,015 patients who have no symptoms, 2,979 are in moderate condition, 1,487 are severely ill, while 304 are in critical state.
The DOH also reported that 16,385 more patients were able to beat the viral illness. However, 156 new deaths were recorded.
At present, the number of recoveries rose to 3,012,156 while the death toll stood at 53,309.
Malacañang on Thursday, Jan. 20, announced the imposition of the Alert Level 4 in four provinces: Kalinga, Ifugao, Mountain Province, and Northern Samar.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that these areas' healthcare utilization has already exceeded 70 percent amid the increasing number of patients.
Vergeire urged the different hospitals in the country to increase their bed allocation for COVID-19 patients. She also asked the local government units (LGUs) to check the capacities of medical facilities in their jurisdiction.
“Unang una ang kailangan natin tingnan yung kapasidad sa ating mga ospital. Kailangan nakahanda ang ating mga ospital (First of all, we need to look at the capacity of our hospitals. Our hospitals need to be ready),” said Vergeire during the Malacanang press briefing on Friday, Jan. 21.
“We are having this steep rise or increase in cases so dapat lahat ng ospital (so all hospitals should), both public and private, should allocate at least 30 percent for private and 50 percent for public of their hospital beds for COVID-19,” she added.
“Kailangan na rin po mag stockpile ng ating mga kinakailangang gamot para sa pagma-manage ng ating COVID-19 cases (We also need to have a stockpile of necessary medicines for the management of our COVID-19 cases),” she furthered.
The LGUs should also strictly implement their respective prevention, detection, isolation, testing, and treatment strategies to curb the rising number of cases, said Vergeire.
“At kailangan pataasin ang antas ng pagbabakuna sa lahat ng ating regions so that everybody can get protected. Nakita na po natin ang epekto ng bakuna, ang proteksyon nito laban sa COVID-19 at sa Omicron situation na meron tayo ngayon (And we need to increase the level of vaccination in all our regions so that everybody can get protected. We have already seen the effect of the vaccine, its protection against COVID-19 and with the Omicron situation we have right now),” she added.