Most new COVID-19 patients don’t have respiratory problems – PGH

MANILA, Philippines — Unlike before the detection of the Omicron variant in the country, only a few COVID-19 patients being admitted at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) have respiratory concerns, an official said yesterday.

According to PGH spokesman Jonas del Rosario, they observed that only a few COVID-19 patients being brought to the hospital’s emergency room have “respiratory problems.”

“Now, we can hardly see patients who need to be intubated or put on oxygen,” Del Rosario said at a public briefing.

He confirmed, though, that there has been an increase in COVID-19 admissions at the PGH, which currently has 255 admitted cases.

The proportion of vaccinated and unvaccinated cases is “50:50,” and there are more mild cases, according to the hospital official.

“We have many fully vaccinated patients who come to PGH because of other conditions, not because of COVID-19. However, it turned out that they are positive for COVID-19,” he said.

Del Rosario noted that patients in the intensive care unit are mostly those who suffered heart attack and other ailments.

“They would arrive critically ill because of other illnesses, then it turned out that they are positive. It’s like the COVID-19 findings is just incidental,” he said.