PH’s healthcare utilization for COVID-19 reaches moderate risk at 62% — DOH

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) for COVID-19 beds has reached moderate risk as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

“As of August 15, national HCUR is 62 percent which is moderate risk,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, the country’s treatment czar, likewise confirmed in a separate message that healthcare utilization at the national level has already reached moderate risk. However, he clarified that the classification is “only for COVID bed allocation.”

The country’s HCUR was only at 56 percent tagged as low risk as of August 8. The DOH categorizes healthcare utilization at moderate risk if it has reached 60 percent.

READ: 236 health facilities, including 25 in NCR, in ‘critical risk’ utilization

Data from a DOH report as of August 15 showed that 71 percent of ICU beds, 63 percent of ward beds, and 59 percent of isolation beds for COVID-19 are currently occupied.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Rontgene Solante, an infectious disease expert and member of the country’s Vaccine Expert Panel, said that the HCUR has reached 61 percent as of August 14.

“Medyo mataas talaga ang utilization. This was as of August 14. More than 61 percent. This is one of the metrics na kailangan bantayan natin while we are on ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) because healthcare utilization will really be overwhelmed,” he told an online media forum organized by the Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

(Utilization rate is high. This was as of August 14. It is more than 60 percent. This is one of the metrics we need to monitor while we are on ECQ because healthcare utilization will really be overwhelmed.)

The country currently has 106,672 active COVID-19 cases as of Monday, including the 14,610 new cases. It was the third consecutive day that the country recorded over 14,000 new cases of the disease.

The rise in infections was observed as health authorities also detect more cases of COVID-19 variants, especially the highly contagious Delta variant. The DOH has so far confirmed 807 cases of the said variant that was first reported in India.

On Sunday, the department likewise announced that the Lambda variant has already reached the country’s shores. The DOH said this variant “has the potential to affect the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 and is currently being monitored for its possible clinical significance.”

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