THE Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital (JJASGH) and the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC), both in the city of Manila, have temporarily stopped admitting patients due to a spike in their admitted COVID-19 cases and infection among staff.
In a statement posted at the Facebook page of the Manila Public Information Office (MPIO), the JJASGH said it will be “temporarily closed starting at 8 p.m., January 1. All kinds of admissions will not be admitted as COVID-19 infection among its patients and healthcare workers continue to rise.”
“The number of COVID patients is greater than the number of beds. Thus, the hospital must first close so it can send home or transfer other admitted patients to quarantine facilities,” it added.
On the other hand, the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center also announced that it was also suspending patient admission for the time being because many of its staff have tested positive of COVID-19.
“All incoming patients shall still be evaluated and transferred to other city hospitals,” Ted Martin, GABMMC director, said.
Martin said they will use the time to “conduct terminal cleaning and disinfection” as well as to “effectively manage and discharge COVID-19 related cases admitted therein.”
As of January 2, the city government of Manila has reported 139 new COVID cases, bringing to 544 the total number of active cases in the city.
On January 1, Manila recorded 147 new cases.
City health authorities also recorded one new death on January 2, bringing to 1,774 the death toll due to COVID since the pandemic began in 2020.
Meanwhile, there are 55 new recoveries, or 91,126 COVID survivors since last year.
Manila has six public hospitals. These are JJASGH, GABMMC, Ospital ng Sampaloc, Ospital ng Tondo, Ospital ng Maynila, and Sta. Ana Hospital.
Last year, the city government opened the 344-bed capacity Manila Mega COVID-19 Field Hospital to cater to mild and moderate COVID patients.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, who is also the country’s treatment czar, said there has been an uptick in the number of calls in the One Hospital Command.
Vega noted how the calls have doubled when comparing the early part of December to the latter part of the month.
“Before, it was about 80 to 100 calls a day. Now, we have already reached 150 to 200 calls per day,” he said, adding they are expecting calls to even be higher once the Omicron variant spreads in the country.
The One Hospital Command facilitates the comprehensive and coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring effective and efficient health facility referral in Metro Manila.
Vega said the Department of Health (DOH) is also now preparing temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) in different local government units (LGUs) amid the high possibility of a local transmission of the Omicron variant,
“We are always preparing for COVID-19 (surge). We already have a track record or history on how to respond to this. We will really reopen them (TTMFs) since cases are now beginning to rise. We are preparing these isolation and treatment facilities,” said Vega.
Vega noted preliminary studies abroad showing that the Omicron variant usually cause mild to moderate cases only.
In recent days, COVID-19 cases in the country, especially in the NCR, have risen, with January 1 seeing 3,617 infections.