The Philippines' COVID-19 total cases increased to 269,407 on Tuesday after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 3,544 new infections, marking the eighth consecutive day in which more than 3,000 new cases were reported.
Metro Manila still recorded the highest number of new infections at 690, followed by Cavite with 305, Rizal with 201, Negros Occidental with 173, and Bulacan with 98, the DOH said.
The total number of recoveries rose to 207,352 after 395 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease.
The death toll also climbed to 4,663 with 34 new fatalities.
The other 57,392 are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 87.9 percent of which are mild, 8 percent are asymptomatic, 1.2 percent are severe, and 2.9 percent are in critical condition. – Willie Casas
Reproduction number still low
Researchers from the University of the Philippines (UP) OCTA Research Team have seen an increase in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases in the country in the past week but said the virus' reproduction number remains below one.
In their latest report, the research team said the reproduction number remains at 0.96 from Sept. 7 to 13 despite an increase in new cases that deviated from the downward trend in the four weeks prior.
The reproduction number indicates the average number of people who may contract COVID-19 from an infected person.
In earlier reports, the researchers said that to flatten the curve, the reproduction number should be less than one.
Not simple to add more beds
A health workers’ organization said on Tuesday that increasing beds in private hospitals for COVID-19 patients, as requested by President Rodrigo Duterte, is “not a simple matter.”
Additional coronavirus beds will require more health workers to man them and authorities have to address first the current “significant strain” on its pandemic manpower, said Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of the Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19.
“The appeal is certainly welcome. We just need to realize that it’s not just a simple matter of physically providing more beds,” Ong-Lim said in an interview on ANC.
On Monday, Duterte appealed to private hospitals to increase their beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients as the number of infections continued to rise.
Medical reserve corps bills opposed
Health care workers group Health Alliance for Democracy on Tuesday opposed Senate bills that would establish a medical reserve corps to be activated during disasters or emergencies.
Government should instead fill up empty health care positions and strengthen the public health system, said Dr. Edelina dela Paz, chairperson of the Health Alliance for Democracy.
The creation of a medical reserve corps will not address the country's problem of lack of medical health personnel and the underdevelopment of the public health care system, Dela Paz said.
"Instead, it will reinforce the government's militarist response to the health problem such as what’s happening now in the failed COVID-19 response under the Inter-Agency Task Force," she said in a Senate health committee hearing.