TO prevent the same incident where hospitals in Metro Manila struggled after reaching full capacity as Covid-19 cases surged, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that “adequate support” is already being given to areas in Visayas and Mindanao where there is an uptick in cases.
“Ayaw natin na dumating tayo sa punto na magkaroon ng similarity ‘yung nangyari sa NCR doon sa Visayas at Mindanao [We don’t want to reach that point wherein what happenend in the National Capital Region will happen in Visayas and Mindanao],” Vergeire said in an online forum on Monday.
She said they are closely monitoring some areas of Caraga, Region 4B, Region 6, Region 1, and Region 7 where there is an increase in cases recorded.
Vergeire also said that Regions 1 and 7 are showing “an increase from a negative to a positive growth rate.”
She added that the health-care utilization rate in some regions in Visayas and Mindanao is already nearing high-risk level.
“As early as now, talagang binibigyan na ng adequate support ang mga lugar na ito [we are already giving these places adequate support] so that they can expand the capacity of hospitals, expand testing capacity, support on the equipment that will be used especially in expanding their ICU [intensive care unit] beds,” she added.
Asked why cases are increasing in these regions, she replied that mobility and non-compliance with minimum public health standards are still the possible reasons that they are looking into.
Testing output
Vergeire, meanwhile, admitted that there has been a decrease in testing output in NCR while testing done in Visayas and Mindanao has increased.
Previously, the average number of Covid-19 testing in NCR was 232,000 per week, but this has decreased to 189,000.
In the Visayas, however, the 46,000 tests increased to 50,000 tests per week.
For Mindanao, the output of their testing increased to 42,000 from 29,000 tests per week.
Vergeire traced the low testing output in NCR to the “low number of testing submission of specimens, and the testing actually.”
As of 4 p.m. of May 31, the Department of Health (DOH) logged 6,684 additional Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,230,301.
There were also 6,098 recoveries and 107 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 4.4 percent (54,290) are active, 93.9 percent (1,155,045) have recovered, and 1.70 percent (20,966) have died.
Moreover, 57 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on May 29, 2021 but three laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on data in the last 14 days, the three non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 0.4 percent of samples tested and 1.0 percent of positive individuals.
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