South Cotabato COVID-19 situation in ‘critical stage’ amid spike

FILE Vials of blood depicting a positive finding for coronavirus.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — South Cotabato officials declared on Monday that the province has reached the “critical stage” in its response against COVID-19 in the wake of the “exponential” increase of new infections in the past several days.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. said public and private hospitals in the area are starting to get overwhelmed due to the increasing admissions and surging cases in local communities.

“We are now at the critical stage in our fight against COVID-19, especially with the Omicron variant,” he said during the provincial capitol’s weekly convocation program.

The provincial government had warned of another surge of cases towards the end of January amid the spike of new infections in Metro Manila and other areas believed caused by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the latest coronavirus strain that causes severe respiratory illness COVID-19.

The Integrated Provincial Health Office confirmed last week two cases of the highly contagious variant in Polomolok town, involving a resident with no travel history and a returning Overseas Filipino Worker from Saudi Arabia.

The active COVID-19 cases in the province increased to 489 as of 6 p.m. Sunday as it recorded over 100 new infections in two straight days or a total of 228. The province only had 44 active cases on Jan. 4, the lowest in over nine months.

Tamayo said among those who tested positive in reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR testing are personnel of the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital (SCPH) in Koronadal City, which reached a total of 62 as of Monday morning.

This includes five doctors, 33 nurses, four medical technologists, three x-ray technicians, two nursing attendants, a respiratory therapist, and 14 other ancillary and administrative staff.

The count does not include the office personnel who turned out positive for the virus via rapid antigen testing, said hospital chief Dr. Conrado Braña.

The Dr. Arturo P. Pingoy Medical Center in Koronadal City, the biggest of the province’s six COVID-19 referral hospitals, said it has 34 personnel and one doctor who cannot report for duty due to the same situation.

The governor said the SCPH has a total of 109 COVID-19 patients, with 60 waiting at the emergency room due to the lack of available hospital beds.

He said they are currently maximizing the available resources at the hospital and increasing its capacity to 60 beds or even more to accommodate more patients, especially the moderate to severe cases and those needing special care.

Tamayo said they are planning to utilize the Soccsksargen General Hospital (SGH) in Surallah town to accommodate moderate patients to help decongest the provincial hospital.

SGH, which is currently undergoing renovation, is under transition for full transfer of management and operation to the Department of Health.

He said the South Cotabato Medical Society has committed anew to deploy volunteer teams to augment the hospital’s manpower.