COVID-19 referral center gets 200 to 300 calls per day this week

FILE PHOTO: A health program officer answers phone queries at the One Hospital Command Center located at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority gymnasium in Makati City in Augut 2020. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s COVID-19 referral center has received an average of 200 to 300 calls per day this week as infections continue to decline across the country, an official said Friday.

One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) medical officer Dr. Marylaine Padlan said most of these calls came from Metro Manila and Calabarzon.

She added that Davao Region, Ilocos Region, and Eastern Visayas posted a high number of calls this week.

The average number of daily calls recorded this week is a marked decrease from the more than 1,000 calls per day that the OHCC got at the height of the COVID-19 surge in January, although, Padlan said, it is still higher than the calls the referral center regularly received in December 2021 – prior to the increase of coronavirus cases following the holidays.

READ: COVID-19 referral center gets over 1,000 calls per day as infections surge

“Mas mababa pa rin noong December bago mag-surge,” she said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

Padlan likewise reported that most of the calls are still requests or inquiries about quarantine or isolation facilities, as well as queries on home isolation as most of the callers only experience mild to no COVID-19 symptoms.

There were also calls about vaccinations and protocols for quarantine and isolation apart from requests for hospital admissions, she added.

Padlan noted that no area in the country is currently under high risk or critical risk in terms of hospital utilization rate.

KGA