Gatchalian fears loosening up restrictions will put NCR hospitals ‘under pressure’

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday raised fears that the capacity of hospitals in Metro Manila could be put “under pressure” with the government loosening up restrictions in the area.

“People will move around, people will interact with each other, our hospital capacities might be put under pressure in the next two weeks,” Gatchalian said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

After two weeks of being placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), Metro Manila, as well as several nearby provinces, will be reverted to the less restrictive general community quarantine (GCQ) from August 19 until August 31.

While Gatchalian acknowledged that the GCQ is a “good balance” and would allow businesses to open and employees to go to work, he said the government should have extended the MECQ for another 15 days.

“I think this is a good balance considering that our constituents will be allowed to work…they need to gain income for their families. However, looking at the data from the DOH (Department of Health), which comes out on Viber, personally, I think we should extend the MECQ because the doubling [time] is still at around nine days and if you want to target a 30-day doubling [time], then we need to extend it for a bit,” he said.

“And also…my fear is the hospital capacities. If you look at our hospital capacities here in Metro Manila, the ICU wards are at 70 percent full capacity, isolation wards are also at 70 percent full capacity so meaning, if you loosen up [restrictions] under GCQ, the hospital capacity may be put under pressure,” he added.

Nevertheless, Gatchalian said there are “signs of encouragement” in the country’s battle against the pandemic, specifically the mortality rate of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines.

“The death rate is around one percent to around 1.3 percent, which is below the 3 percent international average,” he added.

Still, he said there is a need to increase the capacity of hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients.

As of August 17, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surpassed 164,000 with over 3,300 additional infections reported by the Department of Health.

JE