PH’s healthcare capacity nearing moderate risk as new hotspots emerge — treatment czar

FILE  This photo taken on April 6, 2021 shows a makeshift ward (L) built for COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Manila. More contagious variants of the coronavirus have been blamed for a record surge in infections in Metro Manila that has overwhelmed hospitals and sent the national capital region into lockdown. (Photo by Jam STA ROSA / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) is nearing the moderate risk level as new hotspots emerge in almost all over the country, Health Undersecretary and treatment czar Leopoldo Vega said Wednesday.

“The total healthcare utilization of the Philippines is almost in the threshold of moderate risk. However, in those hotspot areas, there are already an increase in the number of intensive care utilization,” Vega told ABS-CBN News Channel.

According to Vega, the new hotspots are located in Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, Western and Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao.

“As the number of cases have been steadily increasing, there are new hotspots all over the country. You’re talking here of Region 1 where in Laoag, where there seems to be an increase in the number of new cases and active cases.

“We have also Region 3, Pampanga and Bulacan, most specifically Bulacan which has steadily been increasing in the number of cases because Delta has also been verified.

In NCR, which actually comprise about 26 percent of the new cases all over, Vega said that cases have also been steadily increasing, while cases in Region 6, 7, 10, Cagayan de Oro, and in Mindanao “seemed to plateau although still considerably high.”

Based on DOH data as of August 8, the country’s overall HCUR was at 54.70 percent still classified as low risk. It also showed that the country’s intensive care utilization rate (ICUR) is already at 61.71 percent classified as moderate risk.

However, in a media briefing on the same date, DOH Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the country’s HCUR is already at 56 percent.

The DOH tags HCUR and ICUR as moderate risk if they reach 60 percent.

According to Vega, HCUR is also at moderate risk in Metro Manila.

“In NCR, we’ve seen that HCUR is already in the moderate risk, meaning to say, about 58 to 60 percent are being utilized for the COVID beds, isolation beds, ventilators, and ICU, but if you disaggregate this in the ICU, we will have a higher number in terms of utilization which means this is already in the 70 plus or high risk position in some of the areas,” he noted.

“There seems to be hotspots all over the Philippines and it’s gradually increasing and I think there has been an effort by local governments and the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) to hammer it down by putting them in stricter quarantine positions,” he added.

The Philippines has 79,016 active COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including 8,560 newly-reported infections. The country was classified as high risk for COVID-19 after it saw an increase in coronavirus cases.

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