An official of the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients are “slowly being filled up.”
While the hospital care utilization rate (HCUR) nationwide is still considered “low risk” at 35 percent, Beverly Lorraine C. Ho, Concurrent Director IV, Health Promotion Bureau and Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, warned that in the National Capital Region (NCR) the occupancy of ICU beds is already at “moderate risk” or 65 percent capacity.
“We cannot be complacent about the numbers now. ICU beds are slowly being filled up,” Ho said in a media forum.
Ho said that while the number of cases are increasing, “inevitably a big number will go the the ICU.”
The HCUR in NCR is at 49 percent and mechanical ventilators that are being used at 38 percent.
Other regions with higher cases like Region 7, the HCUR is 47 percent while the ICU beds at 49 percent; Region 11 the HCUR stood at 32 percent, 52 percent ICU beds; Cordillera Administrative Region their HCUR is 56 percent while their ICU occupancy rate is at 71 percent.
“While the cases are increasing, a big number of it [are also expected] to go to the ICU,” she said.
The total number of Covid cases in the country stood at 626, 893 after an additional of 5,404 infections were logged on Monday.
Image credits: PNA/Robert Oswald P. Alfiler
