Hospitals in major cities in Visayas, Mindanao overwhelmed by coronavirus surge
STATE-OWNED and private hospitals in the urban centers in the Philippine’s central and southern parts are overwhelmed by the surge in coronavirus patients, with regional health offices reporting record high daily cases.
In Western Visayas, the regional center Iloilo City said on Wednesday that hospitals as well as quarantine facilities are full as it recorded an “all time high” of 124 new cases on June 2. There were 1,511 active cases.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas announced that the local government is immediately hiring at least 25 nurses, 44 nursing aides and 22 utility workers who will be deployed in medical facilities “which are overwhelmed due to the number of positive cases in the region.”
Private hospital The Medical City Iloilo also announced that it has started operating its Out-of-Hospital Care Program, wherein coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with mild symptoms stay in a partner hotel with nurses on site for monitoring.
“This is TMCI’s way of freeing up hospital beds for severe cases of COVID-19,” the hospital said.
As of June 2, Western Visayas, with a population of about eight million, had 7,772 active cases out of the 48,071 recorded since the start of the pandemic. There were 39,130 recoveries and 1,152 deaths.
In Eastern Visayas, the regional Health department has been reporting record high daily cases, with the latest at 276 on June 3.
The region, with a population of about 4.5 million, had total of 21,176 COVID-19 cases, with 1145 active, 19,707 recoveries, and 324 deaths.
Four samples from May 31 have been tested to be positive for the variant Alpha, previously referred to as the UK variant.
“Please bear in mind that there’s a big probability that variants of concern are here because we are seeing the easy transmissibility of the virus. With the limitation of genome sequencing, it’s difficult for us to bombard the Philippine Genome Center for our samples to be tested and sequenced for us to know if there are variants of concern in a particular local government unit or in a particular place. So my message and plea to everyone, let us act as if we have the variant of concern here,” said Marc Steven Capungcol, head of the Regional Epidemiology Units-Health Emergency Management Staff.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City “is now overwhelmed with this staggering spike of cases and can no longer accommodate COVID-19 patients,” the local Health office said. “In fact, as of June 1, 2021, there are… 40 individuals who currently need medical attention but cannot be given aid yet, due to limited resources.”
In Mindanao in the south, the cities of Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro were already under the second strictest lockdown level from June 1 to 15 to avert transmissions and free up hospital beds as well as isolation facilities.
Davao City, meanwhile, is awaiting approval from the national task force to implement the same quarantine category from June 5 to 30 “to allow a circuit breaker in the surge of patients inside hospitals.”
The city recorded increasing cases towards the end of May with more than 1,000 in the last week of the month and the highest daily count posted on the 29th at 198 new positive results. — MSJ
