Increase beds for Covid patients, hospitals urged
President Rodrigo Duterte has appealed to private hospitals to increase their allotted beds for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients as the cases continue to increase.
In his public address on Monday night, Duterte said the government needed the support of the private sector in taking care of those who caught the disease.
“Kung sana ho madagdagan ninyo (I hope you can increase the number of beds) because, still, the numbers are increasing,” he added.
The President made the appeal after the Philippines recorded a record-high number of Covid-19 deaths in a day at 259. The country recorded 4,699 new infections on Monday, bringing the total number to 265,888.
Duterte said the rate of infection varies.
“Others are lagging behind, and probably this is because ‘yung (of the) prior infection na hindi na-detect (that we weren’t able to detect) during the height of the pandemic.
So, mayroon pa hong mga naiwan (So, there are still untreated citizens),” he added.
“Alam naman ninyo na hindi lang tayo ang tinamaan (You know that we are not the only country that suffered), so your help will go a long way,” the President said.
“Everybody will remember someday that there was this great epidemic and we were able to deal with it with a lot of mutual help and tulong ng kababayan (assistance from our countrymen),” he said.
The Department of Health (DoH) requires private hospitals to allocate 20 percent of their beds for Covid-19 patients while public hospitals were asked to set aside 30 percent.
As of September 13, the DoH said there were 21,500 beds for Covid-19 patients.
On Tuesday, the Philippines logged 3,544 new cases, bringing the total to 269,407.
The National Capital Region logged 690 new cases, followed by Cavite, Rizal, Negros Occidental and Bulacan.
Worldwide, there were 29 million individuals who contracted the disease. The World Health Organization said 922,252 have died of the disease.
WITH RED MENDOZA