CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga –– The number of residents in Pampanga who died of COVID-19 has risen to 701, with 142 of them dying in the last 17 days, data from the provincial health office showed.
Mortalities in the province rose sharply in April, as March ended with 493 deaths.
While Pampanga’s 42 hospitals have a total of 867 beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients, the highest in Central Luzon, 73.82 percent of these are occupied, records from the Department of Health showed as of April 26.
Intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Pampanga and Tarlac are at “critical risk,” officials said.
Put together, ICU beds, isolation beds, and COVID-19 ward beds, as well as mechanical ventilators, have a total of 74.40 health care utilization rate, according to the DOH.