CIBAC Party-List Representatives House Deputy Speaker Bro. Eddie Villanueva and Domeng Rivera call out to the government to widen its course of actions in decongesting near-full capacity hospitals in Metro Manila and nearby provinces including creating make-shifts or any potential hospital substitutes. “Our hospitals are already full to the brim, patients are now confined in tents or along corridors. It’s time to make substitutes for our choked hospitals because we cannot rely on just reallocating hospital beds for COVID-19 vis-à-vis non-COVID patients. We need to augment our healthcare system bed capacity, either within hospitals or outside. We cannot afford to deprive non-COVID patients with beds just because COVID cases are increasing,” says Deputy Speaker Villanueva. The CIBAC lawmaker makes this call after the claims of hospital associations that the country is “losing” the battle against COVID-19 because hospitals are already operating in full or near-full capacities. However, health authorities denied this claim saying that our healthcare system is still intact to accommodate the surge in COVID cases as hospitals are reallocating their bed ratios to assign more beds for COVID patients. “Mere reallocation of bed ratios will give us a false sense of stability in this war against COVID-19. We need out-of-the box solution for our overwhelmed healthcare system,” adds the CIBAC lawmaker.

The country recorded 15,310 cases on Friday, the highest single day increase since the start of the pandemic, pushing the total active cases to 153,809, which is the highest in the Southeast Asian region. “Funds and resources are always there available for the government. There is no acceptable excuse to not be able to make more isolation, confinement or treatment beds. We demand a more proactive stance and initiative from our health authorities,” ends CIBAC Rep. Rivera.