Overwhelmed

Let's not address the elephant in the room for now. There is a much larger problem to address. Four of the major hospitals in the country have announced their capacity for COVID-19 patients is full. Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center (QC and BGC), The Medical City, and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute have announced almost simultaneously. They can no longer admit COVID-19 positive patients who need to be hospitalized or the more serious cases. This does not mean that the hospital is full but only the bed allocation including their ICU for COVID-19 patients are full. Obviously, they cannot admit them close to the rest of the hospitalized patients.

The number of positive cases is at fifty-seven thousand and six at the time of this writing. It has more than doubled since Metro Manila and other places were placed under a more relaxed GCQ. The Palace has already stated that it looks like Metro Manila will continue to be placed under GCQ and not on an even more relaxed or new normal state. There is no word if it will be returned to MECQ or ECQ. I think the pleas of businessmen to be allowed to open and operate are being considered. But Navotas has seen it fit to place the city under a strict lockdown from July 16-29 due to the high number of positive cases. Manila has gone to the point of punishing the parents of uncontrollable children who insist on going out.

Doctors, I know also expressed the same worrying situation. They insist lockdowns are effective. In April and May, the daily number of cases dropped considerably. Hospital operations have started returning to normal. But since June, the turmoil has returned. The lines for testing are long. While it may be said that many cases are asymptomatic or mild which require quarantine at home for at least weeks, it is no reason to be complacent nor celebratory. There are still serious cases as the hospitals have shown. The question is if hospitals are filled to capacity, where will they be admitted?

Everyone must play a part in fighting this pandemic. Avoid going out just for the sake of doing so because the malls are open. Go out when absolutely necessary. I understand many out there have to go out to work or open their businesses. Hopefully, people always wear a mask and practice physically distancing. Businesses must enforce these rules especially on customers entering their premises. If we do not arrest the spread of the virus, we may be overwhelmed. A scenario that is unthinkable, especially for the courageous frontliners who have been busy for four months.