ILOILO City – The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas urged local government units to establish more temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, medical officer for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of DOH-6, made the call on Friday.
She warned that utilization rate of beds in TTMFs in Region 6 already reached the “early warning zone.”
“Sulod na kita sa warning zone pero ara lang sa early part,” Te told Panay News.
There are some 6,522 beds in 303 TTMFs in the region, the DOH-6 official noted.
Of this number, 2,167 beds or 32 percent have so far been occupied as of July 15.
TTMFs are designated quarantine facilities to provide venues to isolate suspected and confirmed cases with mild symptoms that hospitals are unable to accommodate.
Of the 2,167 occupied beds, according to Te, 1,925 were “probable” patients, 14 were “step-down” and 228 were mild confirmed cases.
Bed capacity is essential in the region’s healthcare system when responding to the COVID-19, as beds are the means for patients to be monitored, isolated and treated.
According to Te, TTMFs are considered in a “safe” zone if less than 30 percent of the beds are occupied, while it is in “warning zone” if 30 to 70 percent are utilized.
On the other hand, the system faces “danger” if more than 70 percent of their beds are used.
Here’s the breakdown of bed occupancy in TTMF and their status:
* Aklan – 50 (one bed occupied, 49 beds available, safe zone)
* Antique – 548 (61 beds occupied, 487 beds available, safe zone)
* Capiz – 144 (all beds available, safe zone)
* Guimaras – 179 (62 beds occupied or 30 percent, 117 beds available, early stage of warning zone)
* Iloilo Province – 1,403 (194 beds occupied, 1,209 beds available, safe zone)
* Iloilo City – 456 (40 beds occupied, 416 beds available, safe zone)
* Negros Occidental – 3,717 (1,809 beds occupied or 50 percent, 1,908 bed available, middle of warning zone)
* Bacolod City – 25 (all beds are available)
Guimaras and Negros Occidental provinces already reached the warning zone in terms of bed occupancy while the rest Western Visayas were still at safe zone.
“Nagapakita nga ang Negros Occidental ang ara na sa tunga-tunga sang warning zone mga 40 to 50 percent ang na-occupied,” Te explained.
The minimum standard of TTMFs is one isolation bed for every 2,500 population, or equivalent to 3,187 beds. They are reserved for recovering, transferred from hospitals, “probable” and COVID-19 suspect cases.
Probable patients are suspect cases whose tests for COVID-19 are inconclusive or those with positive result but the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test was done in laboratories unaccredited by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
Step-down cases, meanwhile, are patients recovering from COVID-19 who were transferred from hospitals to TMMFs.
BEDS FOR ROFS, LSIS
Except for the province of Iloilo, the remaining highly-urbanized cities and provinces of Western Visayas are within the warning zone for the number of dedicated beds for returning overseas Filipino workers (ROFs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
The region has a total of 5,674 beds in 213 temporary isolation facilities for LSIs and ROFs as of July 15. Currently, 2,118 were occupied and 3,556 were available.
Te said Iloilo City is already in the danger zone with 16 of its beds occupied. However, there are available hotels ready to accommodate repatriates, she added.
Here’s the breakdown of 6,674 bed occupancy status:
* Aklan – 265 (122 beds occupied or 45 percent, 143 beds available, warning zone)
* Antique- 184 (83 beds occupied or 45 percent, 101 beds available, warning zone)
* Capiz – 439 (283 beds occupied or 62 percent, 156 beds available, warning zone)
* Iloilo Province – 2,236 (465 beds occupied, 1,771 beds available, safe zone)
* Iloilo City – 16 beds all occupied, danger zone but there are there available hotels that can be used to accommodate the repatriates and LSIs
* Negros Occidental – 1,303 (523 beds occupied, 780 beds available, middle of warning zone)
* Bacolod City – 1,231 (626 beds occupied or 40 percent, 605 beds are available, warning zone)
As of July 15, the Region 6 has 9,026 repatriates with 123 COVID-19 infected, and 24, 207 LSIs with 387 of them found positive./PN
