Some NCR hospitals already feeling increase in COVID-19 cases

At least two hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) are already feeling the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country amid the holiday season and the threat of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

At the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, cases more than doubled from the 30 recorded on December 25, according to its spokesperson, Dr. Jonas del Rosario.

“Tumaas po ang bilang ng mga COVID patients namin. Masaya kami nung talagang pababa nang pababa tapos na reach nga namin yung pinakamababang bilang nung COVID patients namin nung December 25, 30 patients na lang,” Del Rosario told Super Radyo dzBB.

(Our COVID patients increased. We were really happy when it started going down and we reached our lowest number of patients on December 25 at 30 patients.)

“Pero pagkatapos ng December 25, unti-unting tumataas ang aming mga bilang, almost every day mga six to eight admissions,” he added.

(But after December 25, it slowly started going up again, almost six to eight admissions every day.)

At present, PGH has 77 COVID-19 patients, Del Rosario said, adding they may start converting non-COVID wards to COVID wards again because of the increase.

“Dahil ngayon po na parang bume-buwelta na naman ‘yung COVID, parang non-COVID ward ico-convert na naman sa COVID,” he said.

(Because COVID seems to be making a comeback, it appears like we will convert our non-COVID ward into COVID wards.)

“Kaya naga-adjust na po kami at ganon din po ‘yung mga tao namin na nire-assign na namin sa non-COVID operations ay kailangan bawiin at ilagay ulit sa COVID ward,” he added.

(We have made adjustments already. Our people who were assigned to non-COVID operations should be re-assigned to COVID wards.)

Gat Andres 

Meanwhile, at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center in Tondo, Manila, the number of COVID-infected patients rose to 23 after Christmas from zero in the previous two weeks.

“Noong tumungtong po ang Kapaskuhan, actually [nung] 28 po, nagkaroon na po kami ng paisa-isa at sa ngayon nasa 23 na po as of ngayong umaga po ang aming pasyenteng may COVID po,” said Dr. Ted Martin, the hospital's OIC, in a separate interview on Super Radyo dzBB.

(During Christmas, actually on 28, we started receiving cases. As of this morning, we have 23 patients with COVID-19.)

None of the patients was on intensive care unit, Martin said, as they are only mild to moderate cases.

Meanwhile, 19 patients -- and even some health workers -- have pending test results.

“Pati yung aming mga health workers nag-mass swabbing na kami sa ospital, lahat po ng section namin. Kagabi po lahat ng duty ng antigen na rin po kami at nag-swab ngayong umagang ito at iniintay na rin namin yung resulta po,” he said.

(We also conducted mass swabbing of health workers in all our sections. Last night the healthcare workers on duty were subjected to antigen and swab tests. We are just waiting for the results.)

Martin feared that the increase may br due to the more transmissible Omicron variant.

“Sa aming tantya, sa palagay mukhang sa bilis ng contagiousness ng paglipat ng sakit na ito tingin po namin baka, baka ito po ay Omicron na,” he said.

(Based on our estimate and on how contagious it is, this may be due to the Omicron variant.)

Lung Center of the Philippines

For his part, the spokesperson of the Lung Center of the Philippines said the hospital has not felt an increase in its admissions.

“Mino-monitor ko over the past three days, hindi naman nagbabago ‘yung datos at mababa, mababa tayo ngayon. Hindi nagre-reflect ‘yung national data natin ng positivity doon sa test,” Dr. Norberto Francisco said.

(I’ve been monitoring over the past three days and it seems that our admissions remain low. The national data on positivity is not reflecting our situation.)

“Ibig sabihin, maaring hindi nagkakasakit yung mga tao to the point na kailangan sila tumakbo sa ospital,” he added.

(This means that people are not getting sick to the point that they need to go to the hospital.)

The OCTA Research group previously said the reproduction number, which refers to the number of people infected by one case, in NCR is at "critical" 1.47.

The Philippines recorded 1,623 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, almost double from the 889 recorded the previous day.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has expressed alarm over the recent doubling of daily COVID-19 cases.

“Kung sa pagiging alarma, talagang nakakaalarma ‘yan dahil walang kaduda-duda dahil dumoble nga tayo sa loob ng isang araw,” he told Dobol B TV.

(If we are talking about being alarmed, it is indeed alarming because there is no doubt that the cases are doubled in a single day)  —KBK, GMA News