Baguio General Hospital adds 150 COVID-19 beds, says DOH

Baguio General Hospital has added 150 beds for COVID-19 patients, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Friday but she clarified that there was no increase in the number of cases in the city.

Vergeire made the announcement two days after the OCTA Research Team identified Baguio City as an area of urgent concern “based on high cases per day, high positivity rate, high attack rate, and/or high hospital occupancy."

“Nagdagdag na po ng 150 beds ang Baguio General Hospital para ma-accommodate pa ang ibang may sintomas [ng COVID-19],” Vergeire said in an online forum.

The health official said Baguio City’s critical care utilization rate is not in the critical zone because private hospitals are yet to comply with the required 20% allocation of beds for COVID-19 patients.

“Ang current critical care utilization po ng Baguio City is at 76% which is at high risk [level] pero wala pa naman sa critical zone. Nakikita rin po natin na hindi tumataas ang kanilang kaso,” Vergeire said.

“Nung ina-nalyze namin with Mayor [Benjie] Magalong, nag-plateau nga siya eh. Kaya we have to cautiously interpret itong critical care utilization kasi sa public hospitals, 29% or almost na comply na nila ang 30% requirement but for private hospitals, mababa pa rin ang allocation ng beds,” she added.

She said that private hospitals in Baguio City only allocate 13% of their bed capacity for COVID-19 patients or 7% short of the government’s requirement.

Vergeire, however, assured the public that Health Undersecretary Bong Vega already gave guidance on how these hospitals can comply with the government’s requirement.

She further said 60% of COVID-19 patients in Baguio are also almost recovered.

In a separate briefing on Friday,  Magalong said the number COVID-19 cases in the Summer Capital of the Philippines has been going down from 57 cases per day to 20 recorded on a daily basis.

“In fact, kahapon nasa 14 cases na lang kami. So nasa downtrend kami ngayon," Magalong said.—AOL, GMA News