Delay in seeking medical care contributing to rising COVID-19 deaths, says DOH

More people have been dying from COVID-19 in light of the surge in cases that has strained hospitals in Metro Manila, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said some of the factors driving the increase are the scarcity of hospital beds and the delay on the patient's part to seek medical help.

“Nakikita naman natin talaga (We can really see) based on our number of deaths for this past week, talagang tumataas ang mga numero ng mga namamatay (the number of deaths is really rising),” she said in a briefing.

In a separate Palace briefing, DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Dr. Alethea De Guzman said the country averaged 46 deaths per day in March and 41 from April 1 to 11 -- higher than the daily average of 30 in February and 32 in January.

“We need to be able to seek [medical] consult immediately,” she urged the public, noting that many of the fatalities were the severely sick and elderly.

“Meron din tayong nakikita nagpapaabot ng isang linggo, dalawang linggo, bago po sila magpatingin at pumunta sa mga ospital (We see some patients waiting one week, two weeks before they go to a hospital),” she said.

The spike in COVID-19 cases has overwhelmed hospitals in Metro Manila, with some patients dying while waiting for a bed to become available and some doctors treating cases inside vehicles.

Vergeire said the DOH added some 3,000 ICU, isolation, and ward beds to augment the capacity of hospitals.

“By expanding the number of beds in our hospitals, specifically by expanding our ICU capacity, we will be able to manage and treat more severe and critical [cases] and therefore hopefully we lessen the number of deaths in the country specifically in NCR,” she said.

The Philippines has 146,519 active cases as of Sunday afternoon. —KBK, GMA News