COVID-19 wards in 2 more hospitals reach full capacity

MANILA, Philippines — More hospitals in Metro Manila have reached the limit of their COVID-19 bed capacity as coronavirus infections continue to increase.

In a post on its Facebook page, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Santa Mesa, Manila, said its COVID-19 ward had already reached full capacity as of 7 p.m. on Monday

“ We advise the public to consider other hospitals for COVID-19 probable patients needing immediate medical attention,” the hospital said. “We discourage COVID-19 patients waiting for admission in the hospital premises to avoid further exposure and contamination.”

However, the hospital assured that it remained safe and would still accept and handle non-COVID-19 cases, both for outpatient services and for those requiring admissions.

“To ensure everyone’s safety, strict triaging procedures are currently being implemented prior to entry of the hospital premises,” the hospital said.

It’s the same scenario at the Metro Antipolo Hospital and Medical Center in Antipolo, as its admissions office told INQUIRER.net that its COVID-19 ward was already at full capacity.

Earlier, three large hospitals in Metro Manila — St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City and Taguig, the Makati Medical Center, and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Quezon City — announced that they could no longer accept new COVID-19 patients due to full bed capacity.

“This is to inform you the general public that the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), has already reached the ‘danger zone’ in the utilization of the designated bed capacity for COVID-19 patients as of today, July 13, 2020,” the hospital said in a statement posted in its Facebook page.

As of now, the Department of Health (DOH) noted that the coronavirus’ reproductivity rate — the R-naught number or R0 — had slightly increased, from 1.09 last week to 1.23 as of Monday.

The R-naught number is the transmission rate of a disease. It refers to the number of people a patient can infect. So an R-naught number of one means a patient can infect one other person.

As of Monday, the DOH had recorded 57,006 confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide — with 1,559 patients dead and 20,371 recovered.

/atm