Children who were admitted to the PGH due to COVID-19 were “getting sicker”, according to a PGH spokesperson.
On Wednesday, a PGH spokesperson disclosed that children who were admitted to the Philippine General Hospital due to COVID-19 were “getting sicker”.
PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario told CNN Philippines’ The Source that 7 out of 8 allocated beds for pediatric COVID-19 patients were already occupied, adding that three of the patients were intubated while the rest were “oxygen-requiring”.
“We did admit pediatric COVID-19 cases in the past. It just seems to us they are sicker now. When we mean sicker, most have severe pneumonia and need to be intubated,” Del Rosario said.
Del Rosario added that some of the coronavirus cases have underlying comorbidities and were more vulnerable to the virus.
The PGH was also grappling with the increasing COVID-19 cases as its intensive care unit (ICU) for adult patients already reached almost 90 percent capacity, with only five or six remaining buffer beds that weren’t enough for admitted moderate COVID-19 cases and other patients waiting to be accommodated.
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Dr. Benjamin Campomanes, the chief medical officer and vice president at St. Luke’s Medical Center, said that he’s also seeing a “steady increase” in hospital admissions in Quezon City and in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City, with most of the admitted patients were unvaccinated or only had their first dose.
Campomanes also said that in just two weeks, their admitted COVID-19 patients also increased from 55 to 149, while occupied ICU beds increased from 13 to 27.
In addition, Campomanes said that St. Luke’s Medical Center was ready to increase manpower and to expand its capacity to up to 50 percent if the situation worsened due to the feared Delta COVID-19 variant.
The national government was prioritizing individuals within the A1 to A4 sectors — health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and other essential workers — for COVID-19 vaccination.
CNN Philippines reported that no announcement had been made as to when the other succeeding priority groups can be vaccinated against COVID-19.
However, the national government said that it will ramp up its vaccination drive for those under A1 to A4 as Metro Manila shifted to the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for two weeks starting August 6, 2021.
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