200-bed ‘mobile’ ICU facility eyed amid rise in COVID-19 patients — Roque

MANILA, Philippines — The government is eyeing to build mobile intensive care unit (ICU) facilities to accommodate the rising number of COVID-19 patients as hospitals, especially in Metro Manila, reach their full capacity, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Monday.

“We had a special meeting. There’s now plans to build mobile tents, ICU facilities of up to 200 beds. So we have even identified even the area owned by a government-owned and controlled corporation for this special ICU facility,” Roque said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

Among those in attendance during the meeting are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, according to Roque.

“We’re doing what other countries did…and relying now on mobile hospitals. Of course it takes time to build real hospitals, we need to rely on these mobile hospitals now,” the presidential spokesperson said.

Several hospitals in Metro Manila have reached full capacity amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc., meanwhile, earlier said that the rise of COVID-19 patients needing admissions to hospitals is also starting to overwhelm private health facilities outside Metro Manila.

To build up additional critical care capacity amid the surge in COVID-19 cases, Roque said field hospitals are being built to put up more beds for patients.

For instance, he said a 110-ICU bed capacity in the Quezon Institute in Quezon City will be operational after its inauguration Monday noon.

“No one could have probably foreseen how infectious these new variants are and as a result of which, we have these ballooning numbers,” Roque went on.

“We are not alone in this predicament, everywhere in the world we are experiencing the effects of these new variants but we are coping and one good thing going for us is we have learned, we have experienced, we know how to cure and we are facing this with no hesitation,” he added.

On Sunday, the Philippines logged 11,028 additional COVID-19 cases, pushing the total of active cases in the country to 135,526.

The Philippines’ overall tally of confirmed cases is now at 795,051.

The country has been recording record-high cases in the past days, with the highest single-increase at 15,310 infections reported last April 2.

JE