The government is still augmenting the capacity of government hospitals caring for patients of COVID-19 amid the increase of reported cases.
Six temporary treatment and monitoring facilities and isolation facilities that can accommodate more than 1,700 patients from Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces are set to open over the weekend.
In June, five modular hospitals will be established by the government in Metro Manila, Batangas, and Davao.
“Our overall goal is to reach the ratio of one isolation bed per thousand population. On top of these, 635 facilities with 23,241 additional beds are now ready to serve our patients with 85 more facilities well underway,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
In line with this, officials of the Department of Health (DOH) visited within this week the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH), Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, and the off-site extension of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center at Quezon Institute.
The NCMH will be turned into a COVID-19 facility which will allocate around 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, at least 136 health workers from other regions were redeployed to Metro Manila. The DOH gave the assurance that the needs of these medical workers are addressed.
“Apart from this, the DOH is ensuring that COVID-19 treatment is available. We have downloaded 3 to 5 million pesos to around 55 DOH hospitals. And this will allow our hospitals to replenish their COVID-19 medicine supply,” Duque said. – Report from Mark Fetalco/AG-jlo
