BACOLOD City – The city government is in need of more nurses and other medical frontliners. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients continue to overwhelm hospitals here.
“Hospital occupancy already reached critical level at 87 percent,” said Mayor Evelio Leonardia, adding that the city is “losing a lot” of healthcare frontliners.
He sought the Department of Health (DOH) in Region 6’s assistance.
Leonardia also asked the health department for medical equipment such as ventilators.
According to Leonardia, 275 beds were dedicated to COVID-19 patients in various hospitals here, but only 230 personnel were on duty.
The city was logging an average of 100 coronavirus cases per day since the start of the month.
Leonardia suspected that the more virulent Delta variant of the virus causing COVID-19 could already be “in action.”
Delta variant cases here, as this was being written, stood at 21.
On Sept. 21, this city recorded 10 COVID deaths in a day, the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bacolod is currently under a general community quarantine with heightened restrictions, and is classified under Alert Level 4 by the DOH.
As of Sept. 22, Bacolod had 1,749 total active cases./PN
