The Department of Health (DOH) in Region 7 on Wednesday said all hospitals in Central Visayas have increased their bed capacity to accommodate coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients amid the rising number of cases.
“This is the picture of one Cebu island as of yesterday. All hospitals have increased Covid bed accommodations plus ICU (intensive care unit) beds,” DOH-7 regional director Jaime Bernadas said in a statement.
The DOH-7, Bernadas said, is deploying health human resources to the private hospitals “as our DOH hospitals are also hiring more for its staff”.
He also cited that local government units are reactivating their hospitals for stepped up Covid-19 response.
In a situationer report, DOH-7 said the Central Visayas region now has a total of 840 hospital beds for coronavirus patients, on top of the 1,601 readied beds in different isolation facilities, and 162 ICU beds.
The agency said the region currently has 399 available beds for Covid-19 patients as 441 of them are already occupied, while 615 beds are available in the isolation facilities, with 986 occupied.
These bed accommodations in infirmaries and in Levels 1, 2 and 3 hospitals in the region, Bernadas said, are on top of the 48 hotel facilities accredited as Covid-19 isolation centers, which translates to 4,276 total hotel bed capacity.
“This is continuously being done and monitored through the One Hospital Command. Our patients are navigated via our emergency hotlines of 711,” Bernadas said.
As of Tuesday, the DOH-7 registered 363 overseas Filipino workers and returning Filipinos who may be probable cases of Covid-19 while 1,630 of them have been listed as confirmed infections.
The agency also reported that the region now has 5,154 contact tracers, and a 1:4 close contact ratio.
“We are responding as the health sector for the needs of our patients as our political leaders manage the non-health problems that the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bring. We will continue to provide as needed,” Bernadas said.
The DOH-7 chief’s statement was issued to dispute claims from certain quarters that Central Visayas’ healthcare system is overwhelmed due to a surge in coronavirus cases.
The latest bulletin of the agency showed the region has a total 8,834 active cases due to the 566 new infections recorded on Tuesday, with 380 recoveries and 15 new mortalities.
Source: Philippines News Agency
