Additional COVID-19 beds in Manila 75% occupied —Mayor Isko

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on Thursday said 75% of the additional hospital beds allotted for COVID-19 patients in local government health facilities in the city are already occupied.

Interviewed on CNN Philippines, Moreno said their six local government-operated hospitals added a total of 523 more beds on top of the 972 existing beds.

"Out of the 523 COVID beds, 75% na kami. Malapit na kami. Medyo scary yun [Out of the 523 COVID beds, we're already at 75% occupancy. That's quite scary)," he said.

Moreno said the Department of Health instructed hospitals to increase its bed capacity for COVID-19 patients by 50%.

According to Moreno, many private hospitals in the city are already full of COVID-19 patients.

On Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire acknowledged that the pandemic exposed gaps in the country's healthcare system.

Vergeire, however, pointed out that the country now has more laboratories, quarantine facilities, and hospital beds compared to the start of the pandemic last year.

"We can see how we have improved and that is what is more important for all of us right now: not going back to what it was but looking forward and ahead on how we can better prepare and how we can improve our health system," she said. —KBK, GMA News