PGH’s ICU beds ‘almost filled up’ to capacity as COVID-19 cases increase

Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Image from the PGH Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — The intensive care unit of the Philippine General Hospital is almost being filled up to capacity as COVID-19 cases continue to spike.

PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario said 98 percent of 41 ICU beds in the hospital were in use. The eight beds for children who needed intensive care were also fully occupied.

A total of 154 beds out of 225 allocated COVID-19 beds were also being used.

“We still have space. But for severe or critical adult patients who need an ICU set up, we might have difficulty admitting them,” Del Rosario told Teleradyo on Thursday.

The spokesperson earlier said they were increasing their ICU bed capacity for children from age 8 to 12 in anticipation of more cases. Six out of eight children in the ICU were severe or critical, he said.

A directive was also issued by the hospital to decrease their admission for non-urgent cases in preparation for more COVID-19 patients.

As of Aug. 3, Del Rosario said 86 percent of the COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated, 11 percent were partially vaccinated, and 3 percent were fully vaccinated.

The Department of Health earlier said that a community transmission of the highly infectious Delta variant was likely happening in the country despite the lack of enough sequenced samples to prove it.

As of Wednesday, there were 7,342 new COVID-19 cases in the country.

EDV