FILE PHOTO: Health-care workers remain busy at a dedicated facility of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). —RICHARD A. REYES
With fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations in recent weeks, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has opened its COVID-19 isolation unit to other patients with highly infectious diseases.
In an advisory on Thursday, the PGH’s hospital infection control unit said that the 42-bed Bayanihan isolation unit will start accommodating other cases, specifically those with tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant organisms.
“At the PGH, the number of patients consulting for and admitted with COVID-19 has been very low for the past six weeks. Similar trends are seen at the DOH (Department of Health) dashboard,” the unit said. “Because of [this], the Bayanihan unit will shift its operations from purely COVID-19 to now include other highly communicable infections.”
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The revised occupancy plan at the Bayanihan unit was divided into four quadrants with six to 10 rooms for each case: pediatric and adult COVID-19 cases; adults with drug-susceptible tuberculosis; adults with drug-resistant tuberculosis; and adults with multidrug-resistant organisms.
READ: PH’s weekly COVID-19 cases down to 832
The Bayanihan isolation area was built in August 2022 to exclusively cater to COVID-19 patients and augment the hospital’s regular bed capacity.
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