DOH-7 says Cebu City hospitals still far from being overwhelmed

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Hospitals here are nowhere near being overwhelmed, as far as the regional health office is concerned.

The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) disagreed with projections from the OCTA Research Group that in the next two weeks, infirmaries will be filled with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients up to 70 percent.

“Our own validated data shows our daily attack rate for the same period is only at 5.0 percent. Our CFR (case fatality rate) for 2020 was 5.7 percent while that for 2021 January is at 1.16 percent,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7.

While admitting that Cebu City has continued to experience an increase in COVID-19 cases, Loreche said infrastructures have already been put in place to prevent hospitals from being congested. 

The DOH-7 official particularly mentioned the presence of isolation facilities, which were recently reopened to house patients with mild symptoms and asymptomatic ones. 

“Private and government hospitals have (also) maintained the 30 percent bed allocation for COVID-19 patients, and they expressed willingness to open up more beds should there be a need for it,” Loreche said. 

“There is also an established referral system that has maximized our critical care utilization,” she added.

OCTA Research, in its Philippine COVID-19 Report dated February 9, predicted that Cebu City’s hospital occupancy rate could reach 70 percent in the next two weeks, with the rate of new cases logged in Cebu City. 

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They also advised the city government to upgrade its present community quarantine status in the event that their projections will come true. 

“If current trends in new cases continue, hospital occupancy in Cebu City may breach the 70% critical level in two to three weeks, based on modeling simulations. In this scenario, the local government of Cebu City must be ready to consider moving to a stricter quarantine classification should the increase in cases exacerbate to a level that threatens its health care system,” the group said. 

Data from the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) showed that as of February 8, 2021, all hospitals in Metro Cebu registered a total of 40.6 percent as their capacity utilization rate. 

Cebu City is under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) since September last year. Its validity was extended up to February 28.

Local officials and members of the private sector here, however, are not keen on shifting to General Community Quarantine (GCQ), a stricter quarantine classification. 

/bmjo