BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Hospital beds in Bacolod City allocated for patients infected with the coronavirus disease is already almost full, with about 82 percent now occupied, Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for Medical and Data Analysis of the Emergency Operations Center, said.
Sorongon said this was despite the fact that the government-run Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and the six private hospitals in Bacolod have already added 30 percent more hospital beds for Covid patients.
He said the hospitals in Bacolod had earlier allocated at least 200 beds, but the CLMMRH decided to use 50 exclusively for hospital staff members who tested positive for Covid.
Based on the records of the One Hospital Command Center of the EOC, about 126 Covid patients are now admitted in various hospitals in Bacolod.
Sorongon said that of the 126, about 60 percent are residents of Bacolod and the rest of Negros Occidental.
With more Covid patients being hospitalized in Bacolod, Sorongon said the city government is now preparing its 32-bed quarantine facility in Brgy. Alijis to be used as a midway referral center.
He said they want the facility to be utilized by patients who are on their way to recuperation, or those who will finish their 14-day isolation, to reduce the number of patients in hospitals.
GET TESTED
Bacolodnons who have Covid symptoms should not wait for their condition to worsen to lessen the possibility of hospital admission, Sorongon said, adding that they may undergo swab test for free at the Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient Center at the BAY Center.
He said the Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the whole week, while doctors are available Mondays to Fridays.
Amid the surge of Covid cases in Baclod, the EOC enhanced its strategies, especially on prevention, detection, and isolation, and augmented the contact-tracing efforts by deploying more personnel from the Philippine Army, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Bacolod City Police Office.
The EOC also increased the number of isolation facilities while the “swab all” method is being implemented to all with close contacts to Covid patients, whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic.
VACCINES ARRIVING
More vaccines are expected to arrive in Bacolod on April 22 and 29, although Sorongon said they are not sure yet it those will be the China-made Sinovac, or the Russian-made Sputnik.
Asked if more AstraZeneca vaccines will also arrive in Bacolod, Sorongon said they are expecting deliveries by mid-May. On Saturday, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration agreed to proceed with the inoculation using AstraZeneca vaccines after it was temporarily halted due to their alleged link to blood clot incidents involving persons who have been vaccinated with it.*
