One Hospital Command calls jump to 1,000 per day —official

Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, the calls received by the One Hospital Command Center have also increased to 1,000 per day, an official said Monday.

Operations manager Dr. Bernadett Velasco said the calls received by the country's COVID-19 referral hotline previously averaged at around 200 daily.

“Of course, na li-limit tayo, sometimes hindi na pu-push through ‘yung mga calls pero on our record po, nakaka-1,000. Before po ang average natin is around 200 or 150 to 200 po [calls per day],” Velasco told Super Radyo dzBB.

(Of course, we are limited, sometimes the calls do not push through, but on our record, we have 1,000 [calls per day]. Our average previously is around 200 or 150 to 200 [calls per day].)

Velasco said most of the calls are asymptomatic individuals or symptomatic individuals with mild symptoms.

“[M]ay nakukuha pa rin kami na kailangan namin i-refer sa mga hospital, but majority ng requests natin ngayon ay para sa mga mild symptomatic o mga walang sintomas o nag hahanap lang po ng isolation facility,” she said.

(We receive calls that we still need to refer to hospitals, but the majority of the requests are mild symptomatic, asymptomatic, or those looking for isolation facilities.)

The One Hospital Command Center was launched in August 2020 as a centralized referral mechanism for COVID-19 patients needing admission in public and private health facilities.

The Philippines on Sunday logged 28,707 new COVID-19 infections, the highest number of cases reported since the pandemic began in the country. —KG, GMA News