By ANALOU DE VERA
The Philippines recorded 3,714 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the total to 232, 072, the Department of Health said.
The DoH said 67,786 of these are active cases.
One-thousand, seven-hundred ninety-seven of these new cases were reported in Metro Manila, followed by Negros Occidental with 390, Batangas with 248, Laguna with 247, and Cavite with 150.
The DoH said that 1,088 more patients have recovered from COVID-19, raising the tally of survivors to 160,549. The death count went up to 3,737 as there were 49 new fatalities.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, meanwhile, noted that there is an improvement in the COVID-19 bed utilization rate in Metro Manila.
“’Nung bago po mag MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine) we’re hitting 80 plus percent sa utilization dito sa National Capital Region ng ating mga ospital (Before MECQ, we were hitting 80 plus percent of utilization in our hospitals here in the National Capital Region),” said Vergeire.
“’Pag tiningnan natin ngayon, we are down to 67 percent sa utilization for these critical care components: Itong isolation wards, ICU beds, and also the ward beds para sa COVID-19 (Currently, we are down to 67 percent in utilization for these critical care components: the isolation wards, ICU beds, and also the ward beds for COVID-19),” she added.
The decrease in the bed occupancy was attributed to the allocation of more beds for COVID-19 patients by more hospitals.
“Nakita naman po natin ‘yung efforts ng ating mga ospital both public and private na nagdagdag talaga sila ng kanilang mga (bed) units sa ospital (We have seen the efforts of our hospitals both public and private to add more bed units),” said Vergeire.
