Marikina posts 200% hike in COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — Hospitals in Marikina have reached full capacity as the city recorded an alarming increase of 200 percent in COVID-19 infections in the past days, Mayor Marcelino Teodoro announced yesterday.

This prompted the city government to refer both infected and non-infected patients to hospitals in neighboring areas.

“In an earlier interview, I was saying we are operating at full capacity. But I was informed again that hospitals in Marikina are now operating beyond their capacity,” Teodoro said in an interview on ANC. “Several patients are lined up outside hospitals to be admitted.”

Teodoro said there are 890 active cases of COVID-19 in the city.

“This is around 200-percent increase from the last cases that we had last week,” he said.

While Teodoro was unable to give the exact figures from last week, Marikina recorded 409 active cases on March 9.

Faced with a critical situation, the mayor said the local government resorted to isolating an uninfected person from a house filled with COVID-positive family members.

“If all members of the family are positive, we lock down the house,” Teodoro said.

“If some are not positive, we take those with negative results out of the house and put them in a hotel or in a place where they could stay for a while until the quarantine of their family members is completed,” he added.

Teodoro said quarantine sites in the city were also occupied.

He added they would look for other facilities where they could quarantine residents infected with the virus.

Based on the local government’s contact tracing, most cases of COVID-19 in Marikina acquired the virus in public utility vehicles, transport terminals and at work.

The city government has adopted measures to curb the transmission of the virus such as ramped up contact tracing and testing, inspection of commercial establishments to check compliance with health protocols and disinfection of public markets.

Taguig hospitals, isolation sites full

In Taguig City, hospitals and quarantine centers have reached full capacity for COVID-19 patients.

In an advisory yesterday, the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City announced that its COVID-19 ward and intensive care unit are fully occupied.

The Taguig Medical Center is also full of COVID patients, according to Mayor Lino Cayetano.

He said 70 percent of beds for COVID patients at the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital are occupied.

The city’s isolation centers are also packed with residents infected with the virus, Cayetano added. – Ghio Ong