Dr. Herbosa says Alert Level 4 “possible” to be raised in NCR in the next few days with increasing hospital admissions and rising number of health workers getting infected
(Eagle News) – Metro Manila and other areas under Alert Level 3 could be elevated to Alert Level 4 if the health care utilization in hospitals and health care systems reaches high-risk level, health experts said.
Dr. Ted Herbosa, the special adviser of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) said that the determining factor for raising the alert level at present is the health care utilization rate.
If the health care utilization rate reaches 75 percent, then that would be the time to increase the alert level, he said in a Laging Handa press briefing on Monday, January 10.
Herbosa said that the current health care utilization rate in Metro Manila for instance is already at 65 percent, and very near to the 70 percent high-risk classification.
He said that the decision to raise Metro Manila to Alert Level 4 would be determined by the IATF and President Rodrigo Duterte.
Asked if the alert level in Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) could be increased to Alert Level 4 in the coming days, Herbosa said that this is very possible.
He cites the increasing number of health care workers who are getting infected with COVID-19, suspected to be due to the Omicron variant which is five times more transmissible than the Delta variant.
-Over 500 health care workers at PGH under quarantine-
Herbosa cites that at the Philippine General Hospital alone, over 500 of the 2000 health care workers are already positive with COVID-19 and are under quarantine.
“Napakalaki po yun (This is a very big number),” he said.
This is affecting those manning the health frontlines who can attend to hospital cases – both COVID and non-COVID.
In fact, PGH has already closed in outpatient department because of lack of health personnel, he said.
In the Emergency Room, only “life and limb” emergency cases are being admitted.
There are also increasing number of COVID-19 cases being admitted.
Herbosa said that the PGH is only admitting moderate to severe and critical cases.
-Hospitals near full capacity-
As of Sunday, over 28,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the country. If around 10 percent of these are severe or critical, then that means an additional 2,800 cases are being admitted in hospitals.
“Kung araw-araw ganito karami ang tinatanggap natin, mapupuno ang ating mga hospital (If every day we will get this number of cases, then our hospitals would soon be filled up),” Herbosa said.
The health official also noted that most of the health care workers who get COVID-19 acquire the infection through community transmission, and not through a hospital setting.
He also cited data from the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) that around 60 percent of COVID-19 cases that they are sequencing are already Omicron cases.
(Eagle News Service)
