DOH-7 urges hospitals to keep COVID beds

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CEBU CITY, Philippines — Even if the number of recoveries in Cebu and the entire Central Visayas continues to increase, local health officials are not taking any chances with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Health of the region (DOH – 7), in a virtual press conference on Monday, August 24, urged hospitals to sustain their beds dedicated to patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“We really want the hospitals to retain the wards and beds in case, God forbid, there is a surge, and we will be able to handle that,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7.

Loreche also announced on Monday that the regional health office had already recorded a recovery rate of 88 percent for Central Visayas.

However, with all localities in the region, including Cebu City, now under more relaxed community quarantine modes, she said it would ‘still be best to have dedicated-COVID-19 beds and manpower’.

“We appeal to them (hospitals) to let it (number of COVID-19 beds) stay at 30 percent. This is because we are slowly opening up the economy, and also we are looking forward by September (for Cebu City) for a lesser strict quarantine status,” said Loreche.

“Also, with Metro Manila returning to GCQ (general community quarantine), we are expecting more LSIs (locally stranded individuals) coming home,” she added.

As of August 22, DOH-7 said the critical care utilization rate in Central Visayas has further decreased to 22.8 percent.

They said only 21. 5 percent of the regular COVID-19 beds and 32.7 percent of beds in intensive care units (ICUs) are currently occupied by patients.

Central Visayas has documented a total of 18, 348 confirmed COVID-19 cases but 14,383 of these have fully recovered.

Cebu City, which was tagged as the epicenter of the virus outbreak here, has a total of 9,512 cases with 7,632 recoveries.

Cebu City was the only area in the region reverted back to the strictest form of community quarantine, enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), last June 16 due to spike in new coronavirus cases.

The increase resulted in critical care utilization rates of hospitals here to reach ‘danger levels’. It was also one of the primary reasons behind the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of  Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to have the city placed under ECQ. /dbs