DOH, NCR hospitals meet to address hike in hospital admissions

The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday gathered members of different hospitals in Metro Manila for a meeting to address the spike in hospital admissions over the past few days on the heels of the  arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

Some of the country's top hospitals in the National Capital Region have started to feel the effects of a steep increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with the spike at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila being likened to a "mini outbreak."

"It's a red flag dahil within a short period of time, mataas ang numero," said PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario.

Clinical rotation of medicine interns and face-to-face consultations at PGH clinics have already been temporarily suspended. The PGH spokesman suspects that the new variants of coronavirus have something to do with the spike in admissions. 

"Baka mayroon na kaming pasyente sa PGH na mayroon na ng variants na ito. Bumabalik ang COVID with a vengeance dahil ito nga mga variants na," he said.

Health Undersecretary and treatment czar Leopoldo Vega expressed concern over the increase in hospital admissions, saying there might be an increase in health care utilization if the spike would not be contained.

According to Rida Reyes’ report on “24 Oras Weekend,” DOH data showed that Central Visayas and the Cordillera Administrative Region have the highest health care utilization rate at 48 percent and 41 percent, respectively.

However, the DOH said the regions are still at a low-risk classification.

Meanwhile, Makati City, Lapu-Lapu City, and the Ifugao Province are at a high-risk classification over its health care utilization rates.

Despite this, the DOH said there are enough hospital beds and medical staff for the expected increase in hospital admissions.

The Philippines has reported a total of 591,138 COVID-19 cases, of which 535,350 have recovered and 12,465 have died. -Joahna Lei Casilao/MDM, GMA News