Tala Hospital treating 8 pediatric COVID-19 patients —exec

The Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium or Tala Hospital in Caloocan City is treating eight pediatric COVID-19 patients, its medical director said Tuesday.

Medical director Dr. Alfonso Famaran said the children are manifesting moderate to severe COVID-19 infection.

“‘Yung iba po, wala naman pong comorbidity pero late na po nagpatingin kaya nag-develop na po sila ng mga complications po ng COVID-19 infection,” he said in a Laging Handa briefing.

(Some of them have no comorbidity but they were a bit late in seeking medical consultation, that’s why they developed complications of COVID-19 infection.)

Earlier, the Philippine General Hospital said it has reached full capacity of its intensive care unit beds for children. 

The Department of Health (DOH) has assured the public that the increase in COVID-19 cases is being observed across all age groups, not just among children. 

Meanwhile, Famaran said a total of 252 patients are currently admitted at Tala Hospital, which has been designated as a facility exclusively for COVID-19 cases.

The hospital has 520 COVID-19 beds.

Famaran said that among the 252 admitted patients, 179 are unvaccinated against COVID-19, 55 are fully vaccinated, and 18 are partially vaccinated.

“Nasa 95% po ng fully vaccinated at saka partially vaccinated [ay] nandito po sila sa kategorya na moderate po [Around 95% of the fully and partially vaccinated are moderate cases],” he said.

Famaran also reported that 35 personnel at Tala Hospital have contracted COVID-19 but most of them are from the finance division or hospital operation support area, leaving hospital operations largely unaffected.

The Philippines is seeing a fresh uptick in infections following the detection of local cases of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant. 

The DOH has reminded hospitals to only admit moderate to severe COVID-19 cases to avoid congesting healthcare facilities. —KBK, GMA News