ICU bed occupancy in 6 regions at ‘high risk’ – DOH

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MANILA, Philippines — The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization rate in hospitals across six regions is currently at “high risk,” the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

According to DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire, the ICU bed occupancy in the following regions has reached high-risk levels:

Cordillera Administrative Region – 71 percent
Region 2 – 71 percent
Region 3 – 71 percent
Region 4A – 71 percent
Caraga – 71 percent
Region 9 – 79 percent

“Sila po lahat ay nasa high-risk level,” Vergeire said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing.

(All of them are at the high-risk level.)

“Bagamat bumababa ang kaso dito sa NCR (National Capital Region) Plus na bubble, nakikita naman po natin ang pagtaas ng mga kaso dito po sa ilang bahaging ating bansa pati na rin po ang paggamit ng kanilang mga ICU beds,” she added.

(While the number of cases in the NCR Plus bubble is going down, we see a rise in the number of cases in other parts of the country as well as the occupancy rate of their ICU beds.)

Meanwhile, the DOH official said the rise in infections outside NCR Plus (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal Laguna) could be among the factors for the recorded increase in the number of daily cases on Friday, with over 8,748 additional COVID-19 infections.

“Ito pong pagtaas kahapon, yung 8,000, tinitignan po natin yung mga datos, nakikita po natin kasi aside from NCR, [Region] 4A and Region 3, dumadagdag na po yung pagtaas ng kaso sa ibang lugar,” she said.

(The increase we saw yesterday, the 8,000, when we look at the data, we see that aside from NCR, Region 4A and Region 3, other areas are recording an increase in cases.)

Vergeire, however, was quick to say that other factors—like the reporting of laboratories—can also be attributed to the daily rise in cases.

“Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays would be, may trend na po na nandiyan talaga yung mas mataas na mga numero na naitatala natin because of all laboratories submitting completely and operational for these specific days,” she explained.

(On Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, there’s a trend that these days would have higher daily cases because of all laboratories submitting completely and operational for these specific days.)

On Saturday, the DOH logged 7,443 additional COVID-19 cases and 156 more deaths due to the disease.

The newly-recorded cases pushed the total number of confirmed infections in the Philippines to 1,216,582. Of the total number, 53,614 are active cases.

The number of deaths, meanwhile, rose to 20,722 with 156 new fatalities.

/MUF