With COVID-19 surge, Ilocos Sur running short on COVID-19 medicines, beds

LAOAG CITY—Ilocos Sur is running out of medicines and beds as local hospitals are bursting at the seams amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to health officials on Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Dr. Carmelita Singson, provincial health officer, said during a television interview, that the drug tocilizumab was expected to last only for a week.

Singson said they had set aside a handful of the drugs when the cost of the medicines was cheaper.

The province’s reserve stock of tocilizumab, which treats severe and critical COVID-19 cases, has been reserved for “toxic patients” at the Ilocos Sur Provincial Hospital-Gabriela Silang (ISPH-GS), the biggest government-run hospital in Ilocos Sur, Singson said.

Dr. Trina Talaga, Ilocos Sur’s COVID-19 incident commander, said the provincial government would ensure a “buffer stock” for the drug.

But health authorities in the province project a “fast turnover rate” of the medicine in the next few days because of the rising number of symptomatic patients, added Talaga.

Also faced with a shortage in COVID-19 beds, the provincial government had rented Lahoz Hospital, a non-operating privately-owned hospital located in the capital city of Vigan, to serve as an extension of ISPH-GS that had been overwhelmed with virus-infected patients in the past weeks.

ISPH-GS had been operating beyond its capacity with a daily average of 150 to 200 COVID-19 patients seeking treatment, according to the provincial health office.

The Department of Health tracker showed that the 35 beds for COVID-19 at the ISPH-GS were occupied as of Wednesday.

Hospital beds at the provincial hospital still fell short despite an increase of at least “five times,” Talaga said.

To address bed shortage, ISPH-GS would become a primary COVID-19 facility in the province, while the 25-bed Lahoz Hospital would be for non-COVID patients, Singson said.

The DOH tracker also showed that Ilocos Sur’s COVID-19 beds at the 20 facilities had hit the “high-risk” capacity, with 77.4-percent of the 350 total beds occupied.

At least nine hospitals had reached a “critical” occupancy rate, the DOH said.

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