Galvez asks NTF: Increase hospitals' bed capacity for COVID, other cases

National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito G. Galvez Jr. urged member officials to improve hospitals’ bed capacity for COVID-19 cases and other illnesses.

In a press release on Sunday, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said officials crafted the National Action Plan Phase 3 in a meeting in Baguio City over the weekend.

“We need to use this pandemic to accelerate universalization of our healthcare system. The ICUs remain the same because the non-COVID cases are always there,” Galvez said.

Aside from this, Galvez also reminded officials that home quarantine should be discouraged as it causes a spike in local transmission of COVID-19 nationwide.

“No home quarantine should be the rule rather than the exemption. There shall be very strict conditions that must be complied for home quarantine to be allowed.” 

Authorities have been facilitating the transfer of around thousands of COVID-19 patients from their homes to temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMPs) under the Oplan Kalinga.

In these facilities, patients receive appropriate medical attention and secure a place where they can recover without having contact with the community.

Department of Public Works and Highways' Visna Manio said that 289 quarantine facilities and offsite dormitories with a total bed capacity of 9,080 have already been completed.

According to Manio, the DPWH targets to build 689 facilities with a total bed capacity of 24,179 in the coming months.  —LBG, GMA News