Philippines seeks to lift medical capacity as COVID-19 cases top One million.

  • 26/04/2021

Manila: The number of coronavirus cases logged in the Philippines since the start of the pandemic topped one million Monday, as a health official warned against easing restrictions, to give hospitals some "breathing room". Nearly 9,000 new infections in the past 24 hours took the country's caseload to 1,006,428 - the second-highest in Southeast Asia - with 16,853 fatalities, government figures show.

Govt. announced on Monday that its COVID-19 cases had exceeded one million, as the country sought to boost healthcare capacity to ease strains on hospitals and medical staff stretched by a second wave of infections.The Philippines imposed a two-week lockdown of Manila and surrounding provinces late last month to try to stem a surge in cases blamed on more contagious COVID-19 variants.

In the capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to at least 13 million people, intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is above 70%, while 57% of isolation beds and 64% of ward beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied as of April 26.To free up beds for severe COVID-19 patients, the Philippine Red Cross said on Monday it has set up field hospital tents and converted unused classrooms and buildings into quarantine facilities to care for patients with moderate and mild symptoms.

Dr. John Wong, a member of the government's coronavirus task force's data analytics team, said authorities must ramp up vaccinations to contain the virus and allow the economy to reopen.He said 350,000 people needed to be vaccinated a day so the government could meet its target of immunizing 70 million, or a third of the country's population, this year.

Since the Philippines started its vaccination drive in March, 1.5 million people have received a first dose of vaccine, with close to 231,000 people getting two doses, officials said.The Philippines recorded 70 new deaths from COVID-19 on Monday bringing total fatalities to 16,853.

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