The OCTA Research Team on Thursday warned that Covid-19 cases could reach as high as 11,000 new infections per day by the end of March 2021, which could overwhelm hospitals and push their bed capacities to critical status.
Based on the situation report of the Department of Health (DOH), the utilization of hospital beds in the country is 38 percent or 11,258 beds occupied out of 29,453 as of March 16, 2021.
Forty-seven percent or 1,002 intensive care unit (ICU) beds were occupied out of 2,147; 33 percent or 3,139 ward beds occupied out of 9,544; and 40 percent or 7,117 isolation beds occupied out of 17,762.
Meanwhile, the DOH logged an additional Covid-19 cases of 5,290, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 640, 984 on Thursday.
The DOH also recorded 439 recoveries and 21 deaths.
However, the number of confirmed severe and critical cases may not necessarily correspond to occupancy of ICU beds and mechanical ventilators as “suspect and probable cases in severe or critical condition also utilize these resources.”
Of the total number of cases, 10.4 percent (66,567) are active, 87.6 percent (561,530) have recovered, 2.01 percent (12,887) have died.
Eight laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System on March 17, 2021.
Image credits: Bernard Testa
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