In an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio, Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said that the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the city’s Covid-19 referral hospital had a slight increase of admitted patients, but this remains at a safe level.
“Compared to before, wala na-overwhelmed ang SPMC (SPMC’s bed capacity is not overwhelmed). Although naa’y pagtaas (there is a slight increase), we have to remember that it (SPMC) is not all Davao City,” Schlosser said, emphasizing that some of the admitted patients are from outside Davao City.
Based on the August 25 data of SPMC, the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization remains at 48.48 percent, while the ward bed utilization is at 69.3 percent.
Meanwhile, according to the Department of Health (DOH) Covid-19 tracker, only 31.6 percent of the total bed occupancy of the city’s 31 facilities is occupied.
Schlosser said that the city’s positivity rate is currently ranging between 13 to 15 percent. This is more than the five percent threshold set by the World Health Organization to determine whether the Covid-19 situation of a certain locality is manageable or not.
On that figure, she said the city’s active cases had already reached above 1,000.
However, due to the updated Covid-19 guidelines, the health official said some of the positive patients are tagged as recovered since they are already fully vaccinated.
“Based on the new guidelines, pag-fully vaccinated, an average of seven days na lang ang isolation gikan sa adlaw na nakwaan ka og RT-PCR test (if you are fully vaccinated, you will only undergo an average of seven days from the day you received your RT-PCR test),” she said.
In addition, Schlosser said the city’s more than 100 percent vaccinated target population had contributed to the low hospitalization rate.
With this, she said the city continues to intensify its vaccination rollout, particularly on the booster shot, where the figure remains to be low.
The spokesperson also said the city is closely monitoring the cases of Covid-19 in the city after the month-long Kadayawan festivities that drew a huge crowd.
Also, with the recent comeback of face-to-face classes and other pre-pandemic activities, the local government is preventing another surge.
Therefore, Schlosser said there is a need to continuously abide with the minimum heath protocols.