MANILA – The country’s healthcare utilization rate remains low risk at 35 percent despite the surge of confirmed Covid-19 infections to nearly 10,000 over the weekend, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
DOH Health Promotion Bureau and Disease Prevention and Control Bureau Director Beverly Ho, however, said intensive care unit (ICU) beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients “are slowly being filled up”.
“We just can’t be complacent with the numbers now because the ICU beds are slowly being filled up, and it is always a percentage of the number of cases. Habang malaki ‘yung number of cases natin, malaki ‘yung number of cases na mapupunta po sa (While we have high number of cases, a big part of the number of cases goes to the) ICU,” Ho said during an online media briefing.
She said it is important to see where number of Covid-19 cases rise.
According to the latest DOH data, the National Capital Region (NCR), Region 7 (Central Visayas), Region 11 (Davao) and Cordillera Administrative Region recently logged high number of infections.
“For NCR, the latest data that we have is at 49 percent, but we still need to highlight to everyone that while the number is currently at 49 percent, the ICU beds are already at 65 percent, mechanical ventilators at 38 percent, and so our ICU is already at moderate risk,” Ho said.
On Sunday, the DOH reported additional 13,371 patients who have recovered from Covid-19, pushing the country’s overall recoveries to 560,512.
The agency also reported 4,899 new confirmed cases and 63 new deaths, bringing the overall tally of active cases to 48,157 and the death toll to 12,829. (PNA)