The Department of Health (DOH) has placed Bohol on alert level 4, the highest COVID-19 alert classification, due to an increase in the province’s hospital bed utilization, an official said Monday.
According to Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) spokesperson Dr. Yul Lopez, Bohol was elevated to the peak alert level after the province’s COVID-19 ICU (intensive care unit) and isolation bed utilization at hospitals breached the 70-percent mark.
“The alert level is not a measurement of which LGU has the most number of cases. Ang pagsukod niini ang labing dako na gikonsiderar ang utilization niya sa iyang mga COVID-19 beds and COVID ICU beds,” Lopez said.
The BIATF mouthpiece who is also the Provincial Health Office chief said Bohol’s health facilities, particularly its Level III and Level II hospitals, are at “critical levels” in terms of occupancy.
Based on the BIATF-Emergency Operations Center (EOC) real-time data, only eight of the province’s 51 COVID-19 ICU beds in five hospitals were available as of Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, 64 of the 242 COVID-19 ward and isolation beds in hospitals were available.
According to Lopez, Governor Art Yap has coordinated with officials from both public and private hospitals to come up with measures to provide more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.
“Mao kini ang kategoriya sa Bohol apan mas maayo kini kay mahatagan og suporta sa national government ug at the same time hatagan usab og higayon ang atoang mga tambalanan, atong IATF aron mo himo og konkretong lakang sa pagdugang og kapasidad na mo dawat sa mga kaso sa COVID,” he said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a public briefing on Saturday last week that 54 areas have been placed under Alert Level 4 after these were pinpointed to have used up more than 70 percent of their hospital bed capacity.
Hours before Lopez issued his statement, Yap confirmed that the first two COVID-19 Delta variant cases have been detected in Bohol.
These were traced in Tagbilaran City and Candijay.
Lopez however clarified that both COVID-19-stricken individuals have recovered from the disease.
Their swab samples were submitted to the Philippine Genome Center in Metro Manila for genome sequencing in mid-July but the results were only released on Sunday.