Facade of the UP – Philippine General Hospital. Image from the PGH website
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) will be increasing its ICU bed capacity for children with COVID-19 after reaching full bed occupancy for COVID-19-positive children needing intensive care.
Dr. Jonas Del Rosario, PGH spokesperson, said the hospital has eight ICU beds for children with COVID-19 but all are now occupied.
“We will increase it to 12,” he told INQUIRER.net in a text message on Wednesday.
According to Del Rosario, the hospital has observed an “increasing trend” in terms of the inflow of COVID-19 patients, as Metro Manila also sees a rise in cases. PGH is a COVID-19 referral hospital.
He said that at present, 154 beds, or nearly 70 percent of the hospitals’ 225 total COVID-19 beds are now occupied.
Dr. Regina Berba, head of the PGH Infection Control Unit, said last week that 21 local cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant were either admitted or tested at the hospital. However, she assured that there was no outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the PGH despite the detection of the Delta variant.