Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 20) — The two-week strict lockdown in parts of the country has barely helped in improving healthcare capacity in the Philippine General Hospital, an official said on Tuesday.
PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario said COVID-19 admissions slightly decreased, but the number still remains high despite the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine from March 29 to April 11.
He said there is still a waiting line in PGH’s Intensive Care Unit and emergency rooms are exceeding their patient capacity.
“In general, I would say that we barely felt the effect of the two-week ECQ. Maybe at least the only positive about it is it did not get higher than 249, it went down a little bit but it’s been steady now in the high of 220 to 230,” he told CNN Philippines.
The state-run hospital, which is the largest COVID-19 referral facility in the country, said it is still unable to accept critical cases that couldn’t be accommodated by other hospitals. Del Rosario said they only have a few available beds for COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms.
A 14-day ECQ was imposed over Metro Manila and four nearby provinces to stop the ongoing case surge and allow healthcare facilities to recover from the brink of collapse. The government then placed these areas under a more relaxed modified ECQ for another two weeks.
The Health Department previously said it will take a few more days before the full effect of the ECQ can be seen in the number of new cases and hospital capacity.
