Only 3 out of 10 active critical COVID-19 cases admitted to hospitals – data

MANILA, Philippines — Approximately only three out of 10 active critical cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country are admitted in hospitals, data presented during Tuesday’s Senate investigation showed.

The Senate resumed its investigation into the alleged anomalies hounding the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

During the hearing, Senator Joel Villanueva presented data from the Department of Health (DOH) which bared that only 509, or around 73 percent, of the 694 active critical COVID-19 cases are not getting treatment from hospitals.

Only 185 of these cases are confined in hospitals.

Meanwhile, 113 of 376 severe COVID-19 cases are not admitted to hospitals.

“I wanted to find out…what explains the fact that among active cases, there are more patients with severe and critical conditions who are not admitted?” Villanueva said, noting that the total of admitted patients with severe and critical COVID-19 infection is 561 while those who are not admitted are 622.

“Tatlo lang yung possibility. Una: Maaaring walang ospital. Pangalawa: full yung ospital. Pangatlo, natatakot magbayad at ‘di nila alam na ang PhilHealth ay makakatulong sa kanila,” he pointed out.

In response to this, Health Francisco Duque III appeared to have not been aware of the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Medyo nakakabigat nga ng loob ito na hindi sila na-admit despite them being severe and critical,” Duque told Villanueva.

The health chief said he would have to validate the data presented by Villanueva, which came from the DOH itself.

“We’ll have this validated because this is not good to see na hindi na-ospital yung dapat ma-ospital,” he added.

Duque then assured senators that he would look into the reason why the number of patients not admitted to hospitals are higher than those who are receiving treatment from health facilities.

“Titignan natin baka yung ospital na napuntahan naman ay na-overwhelm or overcapacity,” he said.

On August 18, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines neared the 170,000-mark after the DOH reported 4,836 additional infections.

/MUF