LGUs told to expand isolation facilities

MANILA, Philippines — With hospital beds in Metro Manila now being occupied for COVID-19 patients, the Department of Health (DOH) is urging local government units (LGUs) to expand their temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.

At a public briefing yesterday, DOH Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said hospitals are now being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, so there is a need to strengthen such temporary facilities.

Vega noted that at present, the utilization rate of hospitals handling COVID-19 is at “moderate-risk category.”

“This means that 60 percent of COVID-19 beds and isolation beds are now occupied,” he said.

On the other hand, the utilization rate of intensive care unit (ICU) beds is now 73-76 percent.

“This is a signal that we should do the next step,” Vega said.

By having more temporary treatment and monitoring facilities where mild and asymptomatic cases can be placed, he said hospitals would be decongested.

The DOH official urged LGUs to expand or put up temporary treatment and monitoring facilities in their areas to augment the existing ones.

“Since 97 percent of patients are asymptomatic, they can be placed (at these facilities)... They are actually our first defense before COVID-19 patients are brought to hospitals,” Vega said.

Dedicated isolation facilities

As this developed, the DOH yesterday asked those who experience mild symptoms to go to dedicated isolation facilities instead of going to hospitals.

In a statement, the DOH said the call is intended to “help free up space in hospitals for those who most need it.”

The agency noted that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has given instructions that all the needs of Metro Manila hospitals be identified in order to help them facilitate the expansion of their allocated COVID-19 bed capacities.

The agency is asking private hospitals to allocate 30 percent of their beds to COVID patients while government hospitals are asked to allocate 50 percent. This is in accordance with the surge capacity allocation specified under DOH Administrative Order 2020-016-A.

The wards and ICUs for COVID-19 patients of both St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City and Quezon City are overflowing, its chief medical officer said yesterday.

In a radio interview, Dr. Benjamin Campomanes Jr. said as of Monday afternoon, the ward of the hospital’s Quezon City branch is 105 percent full, while the ICU is 121 percent full. Its ward in Bonifacio Global City is 129 percent full, while its ICU is 135 percent full.

Those who could not be accommodated are placed at the emergency room, according to Campomanes.

He said the average waiting time is “from three to five days.”

Camponanes also said patients who would go to the hospitals should know that the beds are full.

“But we could not reject other patients because we cannot do that. If they really need a hospital, and they do not have anywhere else to go because they already went to five or six hospitals, how could we reject that?” he said in Filipino.

He added that there are still beds and facilities for non-COVID-19 cases, since the equipment are in a different place.

“For COVID-19 patients, they are separate from the non-COVID patients. We have the advantage of having more than one of each machine,” the doctor said.

Meanwhile, the same problem is being experienced at the Pasay City General Hospital (PCGH).

Data from the PCGH showed that confirmed COVID-19 beds, as of yesterday morning, is at 107 percent occupancy. For the 32 beds, there are 34 patients.

Eight of the patients are critical or severe, while 26 have moderate symptoms.

There were still two COVID-19 confirmed cases to be transferred from the transition to the confirmed wards, according to the hospital.

In COVID-19 transition rooms, only 12 of the 20 beds are occupied.

The spread of the newly detected COVID-19 variants, which are said to be more contagious, resulted in the spike of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Home, work gatherings

Meanwhile, gatherings at home and at the work place are now the primary sources of COVID-19 transmission, according to the DOH.

At a forum, DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau director Razzel Nikka Hao said based on their tracking system, “home gatherings and work place gatherings” are the “major reasons for the rise in cases recently.”

“This is not specific to an industry, but the act of gathering. That is also why the restrictions that are being considered are (for) those that will promote gatherings,” she added.

Hao explained that this is because in gatherings, people “put (their) guards down,” disregarding COVID-19 health protocols.

“They don’t have their masks, they take them) off or they do not fulfill the distance requirements,” she said.

Sustainable solutions

For the Health Professionals Alliance against COVID-19 (HPAAC), the current surge in cases requires sustainable solutions.

In a statement, HPAAC said it acknowledges the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to impose temporary restrictions in Metro Manila and in the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, but “band-aid solutions (are) not enough to mitigate COVID-19.”

“This may stem the tide, but cannot permanently mitigate the spread of the virus. We re-emphasize our stand that  economic and mobility restrictions are but short-term interventions,” the HPAAC said.

The group underscored that the country did not reach the current surge of almost 8,000 in “a day or overnight.”

“The nature of the pandemic exposed our previously weak health and social support systems,” it said.

The group, however, said the government could take the pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen them with sustainable interventions toward a better normal.

The group also re-asserted the immediate adoption of a five-point reform, including the converstion of the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) system to a One COVID Referral Network.

The HPAAC also proposed that data collection and data management must be linked to allow coordinated action across LGUs and workplace settings, and that the government adopt the “APAT Dapat” strategy. APAT stands for air circulation, physical distancing, always use face masks and shields properly and time of interaction.

Increased daily testing

In another development, Vice President Leni Robredo on Monday called on the government to increase the number of COVID-19 tests daily and to have 24-hour contact tracing to address the disease’s rising cases in the country.

“With the number of cases so much higher now, it would be best to dramatically increase the number of tests per day and do massive testing in areas where transmission is high,” Robredo said in a post on Facebook.

She noted that the country is conducting about 30,000 to 40,000 tests per day.

“These figures were our targets when our number of cases were much lower,” she said.

Contact tracing must be done within 24 hours so that infected patients can be immediately isolated, according to the Vice President.

“If we don’t do this, the number of cases will continue to rise and our health system might be overwhelmed,” she warned.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Vice President yesterday said it continues to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to health care facilities and LGUs in Metro Manila.

Since March 11, the OVP has distributed 31,350 PPE sets and 2,250 reusable suits for frontliners, particularly in hospitals with critical bed occupancy rates.

It also donated 8,500 gloves, 1,700 surgical face masks, 1,700 face shields, 850 head covers, 170 gowns, 68 gallons of alcohol and 44 gallons of disinfectants.

Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) also said that amid the rising COVID-19 cases, the government should expand free mass testing.

“With the daily positivity rate now at an alarming 15 percent, the highest since August 2020, experts estimated the necessary COVID-19 testing to be around 120,000 per day nationwide, with 80,000 per day in the National Capital Region. This is necessary to have a better idea of the spread of the virus throughout critical areas. The figures are based on the (World Health Organization) recommendation of keeping positivity rate at five percent,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said.

“Daily testing has not gone beyond 50,000 tests per day. On March 21, there were only 40,869 samples tested. Of?this, 6,038 tested positive. The positivity rate for this day was 15.48 percent,” he added. – Ralph Edwin Villanueva, Helen Flores, Rhodina Villanueva