DOH: More beds needed than oxygen, ventilators

MANILA, Philippines, January 23 ------ Hospitals need to allocate more beds for COVID-19 patients, but don’t have much need for ventilators and oxygen, as there are few severe and critical coronavirus cases, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing that the DOH was “monitoring certain areas that have not allocated enough Covid beds.” She explained that “in some areas, this is because they have plenty of non-Covid admissions. As for the others, our local governments really do not have the capacity.”

But she noted that “One thing we can see now, which is good, is there [are] not that many [patients] who are severe and critical. So the use of mechanical ventilators, use of oxygen, and use of COVID-19 investigational drugs for severe and critical [cases are] not needed much.” Vergeire said the health-care utilization rate in most regions is at moderate risk, between 50 and 70 percent.

Virus case update

The department’s latest case bulletin showed that intensive care unit beds in use nationwide were at 52 percent; isolation beds, also at 52 percent; and ward beds, at 53 percent. Ventilators in use nationwide were at 24 percent.

The 30,552 new cases reported on Saturday were lower than Friday’s 32,744. The national caseload was now at 3,387,524, of which 280,619 were active cases. The DOH said 267,236 of those cases were mild, 8,591 were asymptomatic, 2,996 were moderate, 1,491 were severe and 305 were critical.

Source: inquirer.net