DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 Jan) – The City Government of Davao has prepared 2,674 beds for isolation due to the expected surge of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Mayor Sara Duterte said during her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Monday that the local government may no longer be able to increase the existing bed capacity since the city is short of health care workers who will manage the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs).
“The capacity is just to be the same as when we had during the surge of Delta cases. We can no longer increase it. As much as we wanted to increase our beds, we have no health care workers, we have no nurses, and possibly when the surge is here, our health care workers will test positive,” she said.
Duterte said local health authorities are expecting a post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases by the third or fourth week of this month although the local government has already started seeing an increasing trend since the start of the year.
She said that once occupancy rate of TTMFs reaches 75%, home isolation for COVID-positive asymptomatic and mild cases will be allowed as the local government did last year when the city grappled with a record-breaking number of cases.
But the mayor said the increasing trend in COVID-19 cases might still change.
The Department of Health (DOH)-Davao reported 40 new cases on Monday, bringing the total cases to 54,348 with 462 active, 52,902 recovered, and 1,794 dead.
The government-run Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) reported that 30 intensive care unit (ICU) beds out of 60 and 115 out of 308 ward beds have already been occupied as of January 8. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
