An official of the Holy Name University Medical Center (HNU-MC), one of the only four Level II hospitals in the province, expressed alarm over the continued surge of COVID-19 cases in the province with an average of over 100 new cases recorded daily over the past week.
“It’s really alarming kay kung tan-awon nimo karong semenaha—gagama man gyud ko og monitoring— gikan sa August 26 hantod sa September 1, kaduha ra ta nakakuha og new active cases na below 100,” said HNU-MC medical director Dr. Bong Lechago said in an interview over station dyRD on Wednesday.
Lechago admitted that Bohol’s healthcare system may not be able to withstand further strain if more people would need hospitalization.
“Atong healthcare system or situation is not really good, critical Alert 4 ta,” he said.
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.
As of Thursday morning, only 13 of the total 77 COVID-19 isolation rooms of the HNU-MC and the three other Level II hospitals of Bohol were available based on data from the Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) Emergency Operations Center.
The Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, Bohol’s lone tertiary level hospital, only had five of its 45 COVID-19 isolation and ward rooms available for occupancy.
Data from the BIATF also showed that there were 1,970 active COVID-19 cases in the province as of Thursday morning, the highest-ever record of ongoing infections in the province.
According to BIATF spokesperson Dr. Yul Lopez, the presence of more transmissible variants of COVID-19 may be contributing to the surge in the number of cases in Bohol.
Lopez earlier this week announced that the Philippine Genome Center on August 27, 2021 reported five Delta, five Beta and two Alpha variant cases involving Bohol residents.
“Usa ni sa nakita nato na hinungdan ngano nilukso ang atong gidaghanon sa kaso sa Bohol from less than 500 or 100 man gani kaniadto aduna na tay 1,700, 1,800 ka maga kaso sa Bohol…this indicates the presence of the variants,” he said. (AD)