COVID-19 beds in PGH 75% occupied, 3 infected children in critical condition

The Philippine General Hospital’s COVID-19 beds are now 75% occupied and three infected patients are children who are in critical condition, PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario said Saturday.

“Based sa last census namin kaninang umaga, we have 169 patients na confirmed COVID [cases] out of 225 beds that we have allocated for COVID. So that is roughly 75% occupancy,” Del Rosario said during the Laging Handa briefing.

(Based on our last census this morning, we have 169 patients confirmed COVID-19 cases out of 225 beds that we have allocated for COVID. So that is roughly 75% occupancy.)

He said the PGH is still waiting for the sequencing results from the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) to determine if the patients admitted in their hospital were infected with the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant.

Del Rosario said PGH may expand its bed capacity up to 250 beds but this will depend on the availability of medical frontliners.

Moreover, the PGH official said they are treating three children infected with COVID-19 who are in critical condition.

“Mayroon kaming eight beds sa pedia COVID ward facility na expandable to 12. Ngayon po ay may anim na COVID patients out of the eight beds,” he said.

(We have eight beds for the pedia COVID-19 ward facility which is expandable to 12. Currently, there are six COVID-19 patients out of the eight beds.)

“Tatlo po doon ay critical, dalawa ay moderate, at ‘yung isa po ay ang mild, medyo pa-recover na,” he added.

(Three of them are critical, two are moderate, and the other one is a mild case and is now recovering.)

The samples from the children, especially those with critical cases, have already been sent to PGC for sequencing.

Del Rosario explained that most of the children infected with COVID-19 have comorbidities.

Of the three children with critical COVID-19 cases, two have existing medical conditions while the other one has multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome in childhood.

The said syndrome is a complication due to COVID-19 where the patients’ organs are swelling, Del Rosario explained.

Healthcare workers

Meanwhile, the PGH spokesperson said they already altered their protocols to further protect their healthcare workers from contracting the Delta variant.

Around 80% of PGH's medical frontliners have already been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Despite the high vaccination rate, Del Rosario said there are still breakthrough infections among their healthcare workers but all of the COVID-19 cases are either mild or moderate.

The state hospital has already limited its outpatient services and they already shifted to teleconsultations.

Metro Manila was placed under enhanced community quarantine from August 6 to 20 in a bid to slow down the transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country.

On Friday, the Department of Health (DOH) said the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus has been detected in all Metro Manila areas.

As of Friday afternoon, the Philippines recorded a total of 1,638,345 COVID-19 cases after 10,623 new infections were reported. —KG, GMA News