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GenSan hospitals’ occupancy rate at ‘critical’ level; gov’t urged to tighten restrictions

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ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1775276" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>MANILA—The occupancy rate at medical facilities in General Santos City is at a &quot;critical&quot; level of 94.32 percent, prompting doctors to upgrade the city&#x27;s quarantine restrictions, the chief of a government hospital said Thursday.The figure is &quot;way above&quot; the critical rate of 75, said Dr. Ryan Aplicador, medical chief of Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Memorial Hospital.&quot;Since nag-start ang surge nu&#x27;ng May di na po kami bumaba dun sa 75 (percent),&quot; he told ABS-CBN&#x27;s Teleradyo.(Since the surge in May, we&#x27;ve never gone below 75 percent.)Government&#x27;s inter-agency task force on COVID-19 is aware of doctors&#x27; call to upgrade the city&#x27;s general community quarantine to a stricter level, according to Aplicador.&quot;We understand na there are other factors na kailangan i-consider bago itaas ang alert level but we hope they will consider more the healthcare status ng GenSan. Punong-puno na kasi,&quot; he said.(We understand there are other factors to consider before upgrading the alert level but we hope they will consider more the healthcare status of GenSan. We are really full.)&quot;Kung &#x27;yun ang sagot para bumaba ang aming positivity rate, then we encourage the IATF to upgrade the quarantine level.&quot;(If that&#x27;s how we can bring the positivity rate down, then we encourage the IATF to upgrade the quarantine level.)The city has 1,100 active cases but has yet to officially detect the more transmissible Delta variant, Aplicador added.&quot;Our consultants told us it is safe to assume kasi ang transmissibility sobrang bilis at ang severity ng kaso ngayon mas mabigat po,&quot; he said.(Our consultants told us it is safe to assume there are Delta cases, because the transmissibility is fast and cases are more severe.)Aplicador, meanwhile, rejected claims the hospital&#x27;s health workers are forced to wear diapers due to lack of personal protective equipment.&quot;Kinausap ko naman ang aming nursing services. Wala po kaming mandato from the start na magsuot ng diaper para makatipid. I think &#x27;yung pagsuot ng diaper siguro diskarte ng nurses, it was never an instruction,&quot; he said.(I talked to our nursing services. We never required anybody to wear diapers to cut costs. It&#x27;s up to the nurses, but it was never mandated.)&quot;Ang agreement po namin last year bago po nagstart ang aming COVID facility . . . Hindi po kami magsisimula hanggat di kami magkakaroon ng 5,000 sets of PPE. Hindi po nangyari na nawalan kami ng supply ng PPE.&quot;(Our agreement last year before our COVID facility opened . . . We will not begin until we receive 5,000 sets of PPE. We never ran out of PPE supply.)Nearly all of the hospital&#x27;s health workers have been vaccinated, except for those with contraindications, he added.

The 94.32% rate is 'way above' the baseline rate of 75%, says Dr. Ryan Aplicador, medical chief of Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Memorial Hospital.