By Civ Alonzo-Cruz
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed in a Laging Handa briefing on Saturday, Dec. 4, that the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) had no COVID-19 patients admitted for two consecutive days as the country continues to see a decline of daily COVID-19 cases.
DOH Usec. Vergeire revealed the good news and said that aside from the PGH update, they have yet to collect data from other hospitals on COVID-19 admittance numbers
“Sa ngayon po hindi pa ho natin nakakalap ang mga ganitong datos sa zero active cases sa loob ng ospital ngunit nagkaroon ho kami ng report kahapon kung saan ang Philippine General Hospital has reported two days na po silang walang new admissions for COVID-19,” Vergeire said.
Earlier, PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said in another TV interview that the PGH previously had four wards for COVID-19 patients. They now only have one ward as the number of patients admitted to COVID-19 continues to dwindle.
“Now we have trimmed it down. We were able to close three COVID wards and open it to non-COVID patients. That’s really a big boost,” Del Rosario said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Angelo Lozada of the Makati Medical Center confirmed through his Twitter account on Friday (Dec. 3) that the hospital now also has zero COVID-19 patients. Their last patient with COVID-19-related symptoms was discharged that same night.
“As of tonight, our last COVID patient went home. @IamMakatiMed has zero COVID patients admitted. #TuloyTuloyNaPoLord” Lozada’s tweet read.
As of tonight our last COVID patient went home @IamMakatiMed has ZERO covid patients admitted. #TuloyTuloyNaPoLord 🙏🏻
— Angelo Lozada MD (@ablozadamd) December 3, 2021
DOH attributed the decrease of COVID-19 hospital admissions to the ongoing vaccination drive of the government aiming to reach 54 million Filipinos by the end of the year.
The first national vaccination drive Bayanihan, Bakunahan launched its first round on Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 and opened its next round from Dec. 15-17. At least 7.6 million doses were administered in the first round of the vaccination drive.
As of this writing, the DOH has recorded a total of 90,640,665 doses administered nationwide with an average daily dose of 1,432,402 in the last seven days. – bny
