Lung Center reaches full capacity; cases near 800,000

MANILA, Philippines — As COVID-19 cases in the country push to 800,000, another government hospital the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) declared it has reached full capacity for patients of this pandemic.

In an advisory, the LCP announced yesterday that its emergency room is already at 200 percent capacity while COVID-19 wards are at 100 percent capacity.

As such, it has no more beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients and could no longer accept walk-in patients.

“We are currently not accepting walk-in and uncoordinated transfer of COVID-19 patients as well as elective surgical and non-emergency medical non-COVID patients,” the LCP said.

Dr. Norberto Francisco, LCP spokesman, said the government-run hospital has been in full capacity for the past two weeks.

“We are just trying to find ways to handle severe and critical patients by adding more beds, stretchers, reclining chairs, oxygen supply, IV lines and infusion pumps,” Francisco said in a radio interview.

The LCP has a 200-bed capacity with 55 percent dedicated to COVID patients.

Also over the weekend, the Philippine Orthopedic Center and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute declared full capacity of their COVID-19 wards and beds.

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPi) reported that hospitals in nearby provinces are almost full.

Dr. Jose de Grano, PHAPi president, said medical facilities in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) are starting to be overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 patients.

De Grano noted that many of the patients are only mild cases, but are still confined in hospitals.

“Even though we want to expand, the problem is our health care workers are really running short, including those having been infected already,” De Grano said in separate radio interview.

11,028 new COVID cases

On Easter Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) logged 11,028 new COVID-19 infections, pushing the total confirmed victims of the pandemic close to 800,000.

DOH said the caseload has risen to 795,051, with 135,526 or 17 percent accounting for active cases.

There was an additional 41,205 recoveries, bringing to 646,100 the total of those who recuperated from the disease. Recoveries account for 81.3 percent of the total cases.

Two more fatalities pushed the number of those who succumbed to the illness to 13,425. The figure represents 1.69 percent of total cases.

At present, Metro Manila or the National Capital Region tops the list of regions with the biggest number of active and new cases, followed by Calabarzon and Central Luzon.

The DOH said over 9.7 million individuals have already been tested with an 8.84 percent positivity rate.

As of April 2, 16,029 health care workers have been infected with COVID-19. Of the number, 95.3 percent or 15,268 have recovered while 82 or 0.5 percent succumbed to the infection, the DOH said.

Also, 15,722 of the 1,047,004 returning overseas Filipinos turned out positive for COVID-19. Ten have died, while 427 are currently admitted in hospitals, it added.