30% of COVID-19 beds remain occupied — DOH

Workers clean beds inside a ward of a field hospital for COVID-19 coronavirus patients at a park in the Manila on June 24, 2021. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — Only about thirty percent of COVID-19 beds nationwide remain occupied amid the downtrend in coronavirus cases in the country, according to data from the Department of Health (DOH).

Based on the latest situationer report from the health agency, 11,417 out of 38,256 total beds are occupied as of Sunday, November 7.

The DOH said 1,719 or 43 percent out of 4,019 intensive care unit beds; 3,408 or 24 percent of 13,966 ward beds, and; 6,290 or 31 percent of 20,271 isolation beds are occupied as of the said date.

However, the health department said that “the number of confirmed severe and critical cases may not necessarily correspond to occupancy of ICU beds and mechanical ventilators as suspect and probable cases in severe or critical condition also utilize these resources.”

Based on DOH metrics, a hospital occupancy rate of less than 60 percent is considered safe. Hospital bed occupancy for COVID-19 patients nationwide and in Metro Manila reached the safe level in early October, after the surge of cases driven by the Delta variant in September.

The country is now back to low risk status for COVID-19. However, the DOH cautioned the public against complacency in observing health protocols, noting that some hospitals were still full of COVID-19 patients.

As of Monday, the country still has 32,077 active cases of COVID-19 out of the total 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus infections since the onset of the pandemic.

EDV