The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed its worries about the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines and the country’s healthcare capacity which is now nearing the red line.
“We are concerned about the situation in the Philippines,” said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, regional director of WHO Western Pacific. “We’re concerned because the surge is really continuing and moving toward the so-called red line when the number of cases exceeds or surpass the capacity of healthcare.”
WHO also urged the Philippine government to ensure that the country’s healthcare capacity won’t enter the danger zone. When it happens, WHO said the lives of frontliners could be put be at risk.
Kasai cited several factors on why the Philippines is experiencing a surge: the presence of variants of concern, noncompliance to minimum public health standards, increased mobility for nonessential gatherings, and movement of unsuspecting asymptomatic patients in their 20s to 40s.
The global body said the healthcare capacity of the country may be improved by setting up temporary facilities to accommodate mild to moderate COVID-19 cases. This was to ease critical level of hospital capacity.
According to data from the Department of Health (DOH), around 47 of 154 hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) have been placed under critical status due to the number of occupied bed for COVID-19 patients. Another 23 were deemed at high-risk status.
Meanwhile, 595 of 781 total Intensive Care Unite (ICU) hospital beds are now full.
The DOH has recorded 6,414 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, April 7. The overall total of COVID-19 cases is now at 819,164.
Total recoveries are now at 646,404 and the death toll is at 14,059.
