THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday warned that the healthcare system capacity of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is in danger of being overrun by the alarming surge of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the area due to the lack of isolation centers.
In a radio interview, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said the hospital bed capacity in the area is now considered “high risk,” meaning “it is already at the 70 percent or more utilization rate.”
As of January 30, CAR has reported a total of 11,665 COVID-19 cases, including 2,871 active cases. Last January 23, when Cordillera was initially tagged as “high risk,” there were just 1,687 active cases in the area, most of which were recorded in Baguio City and in the provinces of Benguet, Kalinga and Mountain Province.
DOH data also showed that CAR has 8,656 recoveries and 138 deaths.
Vega said the high number of cases and the problematic health systems capacity at CAR can be attributed to the lack of adequate number of Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities (TTMFs) there.
“The explanation there is because they lack isolation centers. Hospital beds must be for moderate and severe cases, while mild and asymptomatic cases should just be in isolation facilities,” he pointed out.
“The surge in active cases is also due to the lack of quarantine centers. With COVID-19, especially this new variant, we really need to have them isolated to break the transmission,” Vega said, adding the government is working at establishing more TTMFs in the area.
“We are now looking for quarantine facilities for the asymptomatic and mild cases so we can immediately isolate them,” said Vega.
In its latest national bulletin, the DOH reported 2,103 new cases that brought the number of infections in the country to 525,618 while 80 more patients died, raising the number of fatalities to 10,749 for a case fatality rate of 2.05 percent.
There were 11,653 more recoveries, meaning the number of survivors is up to 487,551.
There were 27,318 active cases, of which 87.7 percent are mild cases, 5.5 percent asymptomatic cases, 3.3 percent critical cases, 2.8 percent severe cases, and 0.60 percent moderate cases.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said there were no reports of new cases of COVID-19 or deaths among Filipinos abroad.
As of January 30, the number of overseas Filipinos infected with the virus stood at 13,960 with 950 deaths, 8, 919 recoveries, and 4,091 still undergoing treatment.
The Middle East and the African regions remained with the highest number of COVID cases and deaths with 7,881 and 606, respectively.
Meanwhile, 34 more employees of the House of Representatives have tested positive for the virus in the second mass testing the leadership conducted on House members and employees from January 18 to 27.
House Secretary General Mark Llandro Mendoza said 34 individuals tested positive out of 2,848 who went through the gold-standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test during the second mass testing at the Batasang Pambansa Complex.
“This is equivalent to a positivity rate of only 1.19 percent, which is way below the 5 percent positivity rate recorded during the first mass testing,” Mendoza said.
It will be recalled that 98 out of 2,000 House members and employees tested positive for the virus during the initial mass testing conducted on November 10-20, 2020 and all have since recovered.
Mendoza said almost all cases in the second mass testing were asymptomatic and all those who tested positive were brought to isolation facilities to avoid possible transmission and immediate tracing of their close contacts was conducted.
At least 11 congressmen were reported to have contracted the deadly virus, killing two of them: Senior Citizens party-list Francisco Datol Jr. and Ditas Ramos of Sorsogon.
The latest House member to have recovered from the virus was senior deputy speaker Salvador “Doy” Leachon, Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco’s most trusted lieutenant who is also his PDP-Laban party mate.
Mendoza said the detection of the new COVID-19 variant in the country has prompted the Speaker to order a stricter enforcement of health and safety protocols at the Batasang Pambansa.
Apart from regular testing and other safety measures, the House has been implementing strict health protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in all the offices and buildings within the Batasan Complex.
Visitors are now required to present a negative COVID-19 Antigen test result before they are granted access to the offices inside the complex and House members, employees and guests are now required to submit an accomplished health declaration form to inform the chamber of their health status before being allowed entry into the premises. — With Ashzel Hachero and Wendell Vigilia
