DOH: COVID-19 healthcare utilization still low but ICU beds slowly being filled up

While the national utilization rate of beds and mechanical ventilators dedicated to COVID-19 patients is still considered low-risk at 35%, intensive care unit (ICU) beds are slowly being used up, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Dr. Beverly Ho, director of the DOH Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control bureaus, said Metro Manila’s ICU occupancy rate is already in the moderate-risk classification at 65%.

The capital region’s overall healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) stood at 49% while 38% of mechanical ventilators are in use.

The DOH also said a 47% HCUR and 49% ICU bed occupancy rate was logged in Central Visayas; 33% HCUR and 52% ICU utilization in Davao Region; and 56% HCUR and 71% ICU bed occupancy in the Cordillera region.

“We cannot just be complacent about the numbers now because the ICU beds are slowly being filled up,” Ho said in a briefing.

“So habang lumalaki ‘yung total number of cases natin, inevitably, malaki ‘yung number ng mapupunta po sa ICU,” she added.

[As the total number of cases increase, inevitably, the number of patients going to ICUs will also increase.]

The Philippines is seeing a fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, which the DOH has said is being driven by new coronavirus variants and relaxed adherence to health protocols.

Experts from the OCTA Research group have warned that the country could register up to 20,000 new cases per day by April if the surge is not contained.

The DOH has also urged the public to wear face masks even at home to avoid a clustering of COVID-19 cases within households.—AOL, GMA News