Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15) — The government is targeting to build over a hundred additional isolation facilities that can accommodate 4,000 more COVID-19 patients nationwide by April, Isolation czar and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said on Monday.
Villar told CNN Philippines 720 more quarantine facilities will be built by April to add to the current 600. This will translate to some 26,000 COVID-19 beds in total, from the existing 22,000, he added.
The focus is on augmenting the capacity in the National Capital Region, again the epicenter of new cases. Villar said the region recorded around a 50% facility occupancy as of March 14.
“Nationwide, if we average it out, it’s about 16%, pero mataas po talaga ‘yung NCR so medyo doon kami naka-focus [but the occupancy rate in NCR is high, so that’s what we’re focusing on],” he said.
“In fact, in the next two weeks, we’ll be utilizing the new pop-up hospital in Quezon Institute. That’s about 110 COVID-19 dedicated beds for severe cases,” he added.
Should the need arise, Villar said they are ready to fast-track construction of more facilities. According to the latest forecast of the independent OCTA Research group, new cases may reach 8,000 a day by month-end, which may even surge to 18,000 by mid-April.
The Health department has so far tallied nearly 627,000 infections, with NCR accounting for almost 260,000 or some 41%. The majority, or 92.4%, of currently ill patients nationwide exhibit mild symptoms, while 4% of active cases are asymptomatic, 1.4% are critical, another 1.4% are severe, and 0.73% are moderate.
