MANILA, Philippines — The continued rise in COVID-19 infections is once again putting pressure on hospitals, with the country’s health care utilization rate approaching the moderate risk level, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
“As the number of cases has been steadily increase, there are new hotspots all over the country,” Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said in an interview with ABS-CBN.
“The total healthcare utilization of the Philippines is almost in the threshold of the moderate risk,” Vega, who also serves as the country’s treatment czar, added.
The healthcare utilization rate refers to the occupancy of isolation, ward and intensive care unit beds allocated for COVID-19 patients as well as mechanical ventilators.
Latest data from the DOH’s tracker showed that the country’s overall bed occupancy rate has reached 58.3%. It is considered at moderate risk if the utilization rate is between 60% and 70%.
Data also showed that 67.7% of the country’s ICU beds dedicated to COVID-19 have been occupied.
In Metro Manila, which will be under lockdown until August 20, the healthcare utilization is already at moderate risk, Vega said.
“We made the necessary steps for this because we knew very well that the number of intensive care units has to be improved in terms of capacity… If we do not manage them well, it will increase our case fatality rate,” Vega said.
Other hotspots
Aside from Metro Manila, Vega identified Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, Pampanga, Bulacan, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao as “hotspots.”
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 41 areas across the country are placed under heightened alert.
“Even if their case trends are not that high, their health care utilization rate is already more than 70%,” Vergeire said in a separate briefing.
The DOH has been urging hospitals to admit only severe and critical COVID-19 cases as asymptomatic cases or those experiencing mild symptoms can be treated in smaller facilities.
Vega also said hospitals have been asked to come up “with their own innovative ways” of transforming wards or private rooms to units capable of handling severe and critical cases.
The Philippines is battling one of Southeast Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with over 1.6 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic. — Gaea Katreena Cabico