COVID-19 hospital admissions going up

MANILA, Philippines — Hospital admissions for COVID are starting to go up nationwide, according to the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc.

PHAPi president Dr. Jose Rene de Grano reported that COVID-19 admissions in private hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other parts of the country have exceeded 20 percent in the past days.

“We noticed that for the past two or three days, the number of cases really slightly increased. The rate of admissions in private hospitals also increased slightly,” De Grano said in mixed English and Filipino during the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday.

“Before, we only had less than 20 percent hospital admissions. Now, a few although not all, increased by more than 20 percent, and the others up to 50 percent. But it depends on the number of allocated beds,” he added.

Aside from NCR, De Grano said private hospitals in Calabarzon, particularly Cavite and Laguna as well as Aklan and Davao region, also posted a slight uptick.

However, he explained that there are few medical facilities in those regions, thus most of the patients are crowding.

He further noted that most COVID-19 admissions are considered “coincidental,” which means they sought consultation for other medical reasons, but turned out positive for the virus during screening.

At this time, De Grano said the majority of the COVID-19 cases are mild thus patients are advised to just isolate at home.

“We are closely monitoring the moderate and severe cases with comorbidities and are immune-compromised. Those should be monitored and should they worsen, at least they are already in the hospital,” he pointed out.

Even with the rising admissions, De Grano gave assurance that there is no reason for patients to fear going to hospitals to seek medical consultation.

He encouraged the public to wear face masks and to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the virus. He, however, admitted that re-imposing the mandatory face mask policy would be difficult since it has already been lifted.

De Grano also assured the public of the private hospitals’ readiness to handle a possible rise in El Niño-related diseases.