Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) — Medical devices will be sourced from healthcare facilities in other regions should hospitals in Metro Manila run out of equipment for COVID-19 patients, the Department of Health said Tuesday.
“For example, the high flow nasal cannula, which is something that they use for critically ill patients, we have a total of 1,300 supplies [of] these and the private hospitals also procured their own. If these run out, we need to source from the other regions like what we have done last July and August,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines’ New Day.
In July and August last year, hospitals in Metro Manila got overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, prompting the government to look for ways to augment their capacity such as referring COVID-19 patients to hospitals outside of the region and deploying more healthcare personnel and equipment from other areas.
The government also tightened restrictions in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal from August 4 to 18 of the same year in response to the call of the medical community for a “timeout.”
These areas are currently under the strictest form of lockdown due to a fresh surge in COVID-19 cases.
As for the stocks of investigational drugs used for COVID-19 treatment, the DOH is coordinating with pharmaceutical firms so government hospitals could directly buy from manufacturers to augment their dwindling supply, Vergeire said.
The health department earlier reported that hospitals were running low on stocks of remdesivir and tocilizumab that are used for COVID-19 treatment. The agency has given DOH hospitals P5 million each to replenish their supplies.
READ: Stocks of remdesivir, tocilizumab in PH to be replenished this month
