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A Department of Health official today accused some hospitals in the Philippines of ignoring the government’s required number of beds that should be dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told the news program Unang Hirit that this is the reason why some hospitals reject COVID-19 patients.
“When a hospital says they are full capacity, they are saying that [they are full] based on the hospital beds which they have dedicated for COVID [patients],” she said in English and Filipino.
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“But, for example, we require hospitals to meet our standard of assigning 30% of your hospital beds for COVID. But not all hospitals comply with that [rule]. So they allot this number of beds for COVID, then when it fills up, they will say that they are in full capacity,” Vergeire.
“Although, we are monitoring [them] now. And we have a meeting with all of these hospitals today to see their state,” she said.
Vegeire’s statement comes after the Chinese General Hospital in Santa Cruz, Manila yesterday declared that they have reached full capacity due to the surge of COVID-19 patients. They informed the public that any suspected cases will have to be referred to other hospitals.
Meanwhile, Undersecretary Vergeire said that the increasing number of COVID-19 cases was caused by the loosening of quarantines in different parts of the country. At present, only Cebu City is under the enhanced community quarantine, the strictest level of lockdown.
“Now that we have eased down on restrictions, and we are seeing this rise of cases, it’s necessary that each of us follow the [health] guidelines that have been issued by the Department of Health and the government so we can avoid infections,” she said.
As of yesterday, there are 41,830 reported COVID-19 cases in the country, with 1,290 deaths and 11,453 recoveries.
