COVID-19 patients in PGH down to 54; 15% of bed occupancy — spox

The number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has decreased to 54, its spokesperson said Friday.

In an interview on ANC, PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario said this was 15% of the hospital's 350 beds dedicated to confirmed cases.

“Right now, the lowest number we have gotten for almost more than a year, we are now down to 54 confirmed patients,” Rosario said.

Rosario said most of the patients are moderate with less than 10 being admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“The one good news is, I was told for the last two days, we have not admitted anybody with COVID. Our numbers are really going down… Maybe in the next few days or weeks, we will be down to the 20s,” he said.

According to Del Rosario, this may be attributed to the herd immunity achieved in the National Capital Region after it achieved a high vaccination rate.

“And I’m sure there are a lot of people who got COVID and natural infection. They had COVID, so they also developed their own natural immunity… I would say really it’s the herd immunity we achieved for the last three or four months,” he said.

PGH prepared for Omicron

Though PGH is already opening its doors to non-COVID patients, Rosario assured the public that it is prepared for the Omicron variant should it enter the country.

The Omicron variant, which has at least 50 mutations, is feared for being more transmissible due to the difference in its spike protein from the original coronavirus.

“We’re always on this alert level because we have learned our lessons. Even though we’re opening our hospitals to the non-COVID patients, we have our set just in case the Omicron happens and we are prepared for it,” he said.

The Philippines has imposed travel restrictions over Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique.

On Thursday, the Inter-Agency Task Force imposed new testing and quarantine protocols for travelers arriving from countries that are not on the red list.

2022 budget

Meanwhile, Del Rosario called on the government to prioritize allocation to manpower in the 2022 budget, stressing that operations will still be limited without people even with equipment.

“Give the benefits to the frontliners. You know, we might have all the equipment, we might have all the rooms… if we do not have the people to man the hospitals then we’re still limited to the number of patients we can take care of,” he said.

He also urged the government to increase the salaries of nurses, paramedical professions, and doctors to “slow down the tide of people leaving the country.”

Rosario earlier said around 15 PGH nurses went for opportunities abroad.

Meanwhile, he also pushed for a creation of a dedicated hospital for future pandemics.

“Now that there’s this lull, maybe we can look into dedicating a big hospital… what Wuhan did, try to identify a hospital or make a hospital for this crisis like a pandemic,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News