AS DAVAO City is bracing for a possible surge of Covid-19 cases due to the highly infectious Delta variant of the Sars-CoV-2, the City Government is planning to establish a medical oxygen plant.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said Monday, August 9, 2021, that the plan is in response to the recently detected Delta variant in the city.
According to the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao as of Monday, August 9, the city already has five confirmed specimens positive for the Delta variant. Of the total, four are local cases, while one is a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Zambia, Africa.
Duterte-Carpio said securing ample medical oxygen supply in the city is among the things that have been discussed during their regular meetings with private hospitals and with the DOH.
She said the meetings, as requested by the DOH, aim to talk about the challenges of private hospitals, their compliance to the Covid-19 bed capacity requirement as mandated by law, and Philhealth concerns.
“Isa sa mga naistoryahan dinha is ang oxygen supply in case of a surge nga panginahanglanon daghan sa atong mga hospitals (Among things that we have discussed is the oxygen supply in case of a surge as it is needed in our hospitals),” the mayor said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Duterte-Carpio said the Food and Drug Administration is currently making an inventory of the current supply of oxygen tanks and suppliers in the city.
She said they are currently consulting and making computations of how many oxygens would be needed in case of a surge.
“Sa pagkakaron, we have a list diri sa atoa sa City Government of Davao kung pila ka mga tangke sa computation sa atoang DOH na panginahanglanon sa atoang mga hospitals in case of a surge. Ang gibuhat sa DOH, I think nag inventory sila. Gi-compute sa DOH ang mga kulang based on surge requirements (We currently have a list in the City Government of Davao of the number of tanks, as computed by DOH, that will be needed by our hospitals in case of a surge. DOH, I think, made an inventory and computed what’s lacking based on surge requirements),” Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor designated the City Economic Enterprise Office to negotiate with oxygen manufacturers to supply hospitals with the needed number of medical oxygen tanks in the city.
Staying alert vs Delta
Duterte-Carpio said the anticipated Delta surge in the city would be more than what was experienced in the previous surge. Quoting medical experts, she said the variant, which was first discovered in India, has higher transmissibility and can infect more individuals.
Amid the recent detection of the highly transmissible variants, the mayor said the city is not on the verge of being placed under a higher quarantine status such as enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Hence, she said the city will still implement the same action plan, which includes contact tracing of the first, second, and third-generation (F1, F2, and F3) contacts who will have to undergo a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing along with those who will have to undertake surveillance swabbing in high-risk areas and groups of people, influenza-like swabbing, and swabbing for those with Covid-19 symptoms.
The mayor also reiterated that isolation and quarantining of Covid-19 positive patients and vaccination are also part of the action plan that the mayor mentioned.
“We are intensifying contact tracing, especially of suspected Delta. Gina-tag nato as delta suspects if they come from areas diin asa daghan ang (We tag as Delta suspects if they come from places with a lot of Delta cases) like India, Indonesia, and the National Capital Region,” she said.
DOH recently told hospitals in Davao Region to ready their mechanical ventilators, oxygen tanks, and other respiratory equipment as more Covid-19 cases with the Delta variant were detected.
Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) chief Dr. Ricardo Audan said they have sufficient mechanical ventilators and high-flow oxygen nasal cannula.
Despite the available supply, Audan said they are preparing more supplies to assure that the city hospital has enough supply of oxygen tanks.
“We had a series of meetings, even with DOH and Mayor Sara [Duterte-Carpio], and I assured them that we will not be like India and Cebu,” the SPMC official said.
Audan said SPMC has two oxygen plants, with six oxygen generators that are fully functional. He said generators can produce 873 tons per day, the maximum production.
However, due to the daily consumption of 1,123 tons, he said they tied up with other manufacturers for the supply of medical oxygen.
“Rest assured that SPMC is sufficient to provide oxygens for this because we have two oxygen [manufacturer],” Audan said.
In case there will be a surge in the city, he said they have an upcoming hyperbaric oxygen plant that will open this month, which can produce 300 tons of oxygen tanks.
