CEBU City’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) critical care utilization rate (CCUR) is still in the safe zone even with the continued increase of Covid-19 cases in the city.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Department of Health (DOH) 7 spokesperson, said the CCUR in private hospitals is 47.5 percent, or within the 60 percent threshold, as of Thursday, March 18, 2021.
Loreche said of the 855 beds allocated for Covid-19 patients, 406 are occupied.
“For our government facilities it is at 60 percent. Both private and government facilities (are still) in the safe zone,” she said.
CCUR relates to the number of regular and intensive care unit (ICU) beds which are allocated for Covid-19 patients, including isolation beds and ventilators in use in various health facilities.
As of Friday, March 19, Central Visayas logged a total of 46,284 Covid-19 cases. Of that number, 6,642 are active, while 37,945 have recovered. The death toll has reached 1,697.
For Friday alone, the region recorded 382 additional cases, 441 additional recoveries and seven new deaths.
The DOH 7 said the overnight spike in mortalities is due to more accurate data collection and validating efforts.
Cebu City had the highest number of active cases with 2,580; followed by Cebu Province with 1,472; Lapu-Lapu City with 1,100; Mandaue City with 1,069; Bohol with 305; Negros Oriental with 113; and Siquijor with three.
On Saturday, March 20, the Philippines again broke its own record as the DOH reported 7,999 new Covid-19 cases.
These were higher than the previous day’s 7,103 cases and last year’s peak of 6,958 on Aug. 10, 2020.
These pushed the number of active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities to a seven-month high of 80,642, lesser than the 83,109 on Aug. 15, 2020 and caused the cumulative case count to surge past 650,000.
The DOH case bulletin at 4 p.m. Saturday also showed 30 additional deaths from Covid-19, raising the death toll to 12,930.
There were 597 new recoveries, bringing the total to 562,484.
The proportion of active cases inched up by a percentage point to 12.3 percent of the total case count of 656,056 while the case fatality rate and the proportion of recoveries declined further to 1.97 percent and 85.7 percent, respectively.
The daily positivity rate remained elevated at 14.6 percent, although this was lesser than the previous day’s 15 percent, as fewer people got tested for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Of the 30,131 samples tested, 4,390 yielded positive results.
The DOH case bulletin also showed that half of the ICU beds nationwide were in use while utilization rates for isolation and ward beds were lower at 40 percent and 37 percent on Saturday compared to the previous day’s 60 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
The utilization rate for mechanical ventilators was also lower at 32 percent on Saturday compared to 69 percent on Friday. No explanation was given for the disparity.
Based on the DOH tracker, the highest 14-day running total of new cases as of March 19 were still in Quezon City (5,508), Manila (4,240), Cavite (2,781), Pasay City (2,726) and Bulacan (2,596). Quezon City is the most populous city in the country.
Among the regions, the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to post the highest 14-day running total of new cases at 27,862; followed by Calabarzon with 7,702; Central Visayas with 4,818; Central Luzon with 4,344; and Cagayan Valley with 1,416.
The NCR, where nearly 50 percent of the cases originate according to health authorities, is the second biggest region in the country in terms of population, next only to Calabarzon. (WBS, MVI, HDT / SunStar Philippines)