76% of Lung Center's beds now for COVID-19 patients —exec

The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) now has dedicated 76 percent of its bed capacity to COVID-19 patients, its spokesperson said Friday.

"If COVID-19 cases are low, only around 35% of the operational capacity is dedicated to COVID patients. But as cases increase, we also increase the percentage of the beds allotted to them," LCP spokesperson Dr. Norberto Francisco said at the Laging Handa briefing.

"As of now, we are at 76% dedicated to COVID-19 patients, and this is about the highest. We could not raise it up to 100% because it is the mandate of the Lung Center to treat all kinds of lung diseases," Francisco said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Francisco however said the effects of the enhanced community quarantine is yet to be felt in LCP's admissions and its healthcare capacity due to a two-week lag in ECQ implementation.

"This has something to do with the incubation period of the virus," he pointed out.

On July 13, the LCP recorded the  lowest census of 20 admitted COVID-19 patients,  but the admissions hit 60 by the month's end. 

Currently, LCP has 135 admitted COVID patients, according to Francisco.

"If we compare last month, July 13 up to now, August 13, exactly one month, we have almost seven times more. It was exponential in the past few days," he said.

"If you will ask the medical personnel, I think we still have to extend this. This is purely on the medical aspect, because we have only started to accept increasing cases from the community," said Francisco, referring to whether they are in favor of extending the ECQ.

He said the Lung Center has increased their "hospitainers" or container vans repurposed for COVID-19 cases.

On Thursday, the Philippines recorded 1,700,363 COVID-19 cases with 12,439 new infections, the second consecutive day where more than 12,000 cases were tallied.  —LBG, GMA News