The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said it is not yet raising the current Alert Level 3 in Metro Manila despite the high number of cases reported in the region as of late.
DOH Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, also the COVID-19 treatment czar, said this is because the hospital utilization rate in the National Capital Region remains at a low-risk level.
"Kapag Alert Level 4 dapat tumaas na yung paggamit natin ng mga hospitals, nasa low risk pa naman tayo sa mga hospitals," he told DZRH in an interview.
(Under Alert Level 4, hospital utilization should also be increased. But our use of hospitals is still at low risk.)
According to Vega, the current situation is different from the country's experience with the Delta variant in September, where patients were having difficulties accessing intensive care units.
"Ibang-iba to sa Delta nung September na sa 26,000 'yung mga tao talaga naghahanap na ng magpapasok na intensive care unit at talagang nahirapan talaga yung one hospital command para dun sa paghanap ng mga intensive care unit at saka oxygen," he said.
(This is different from Delta in September where out of 26,000, people were really looking for intensive care units, and then our one hospital command also found it difficult to find intensive care units and oxygen.)
"Ngayon kakaiba kasi ang karamihan po ng tawag samin ngayon ay naghahanap isolation facilities at saka paracetamol," he added.
(Now it’s different because a lot of our calls now are looking for isolation facilities and paracetamol.)
Vega made the remarks despite the massive number of new COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, where 15,445 new cases were reported on Tuesday, about 55% of the latest total caseload, according to OCTA Research fellow Guido David.
