Philippine hospitals struggle to cope as more severe COVID-19 wave hits

By Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, April 20 (Reuters) - Nick Yañez, a 28-year-old
ambulance nurse in a satellite city of Manila, says she
sometimes spends six to seven hours in her emergency vehicle
caring for a COVID-19 patient before a bed can be found in a
hospital.
Already facing one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia,
the Philippines has seen a second wave of infections that is
stretching health care workers in the capital like never before.
"The situation is more severe now. This is version 2.0. The
cases are higher, we are more exhausted," said Yañez, whose
ambulance operates in Pasig City.
The country has averaged more than 10,400 daily COVID-19
cases since the start of April, nearly double the level in March
and far above the 213 per day in April 2020 and 2,169 in the
second half of last year, health ministry data showed.
A two-week lockdown of the capital region, an urban sprawl
of 16 cities that is home to at least 13 million people, appears
to have done little to ease the strain on the medical system.
Intensive-care units in the Manila area are at 84% capacity,
while 70% of COVID-19 ward beds and 63% of isolation beds were
full as of April 19, government data showed.
In early April, when no Manila hospital could take him in,
COVID-19 patient Jaybee Garganera was driven to a hospital in
Clark, Pampanga, 100 km (62 miles) from his home.
"I could hear her talking in the other room and every time
she put the phone down she would be sobbing," Garganera said of
his wife, who called hospitals all over Manila.
The Philippines has reported 945,745 COVID-19 cases since
the pandemic started, with close to 17,000 healthcare workers
infected. So far, about 16,000 people have died.
Among those who perished was Jayson Maulit's 95-year-old
great grandmother, who died in an emergency room in Batangas
province on April 2 before she could be admitted to a hospital.
"Every hospital we called, we were either wait listed or
were told that they are full," said Maulit, a small-business
owner.
The health minister said on Friday more than 1,400 beds
would be added in the capital area and more than 100 health care
workers from other parts of the country brought in to help.
For Encarnita Blanco-Limpin, a doctor at the Philippine
Heart Center, the help is welcome. But she said that contact
tracing must be improved and more vaccines distributed to take
the pressure off hospitals.
Nearly 1.3 million people have so far received at least one
vaccine dose, with only 3 million doses arriving in the country
out of the 140 million it aims to procure.
"Our emergency room is running at 200% capacity," said
Blanco-Limpin, who recently was infected with COVID-19. "Many of
these coronavirus patients are not on beds, some of them are
being treated while in sitting positions."

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Philippines battling surge in COVID-19 cases https://tmsnrt.rs/3ao5jnR
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