The Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital is increasing its COVID-19 beds with occupancy in some Bacolod hospitals having reached full capacity.
The CLMMRH forecast based on available data is that there will be a continued rise in COVID-19 cases in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental for the next two weeks, Dr. Julius Drilon, CLMMRH chief, said Thursday, June 3.
The forecast is that from June 1-14 there will be 90 to 100 new COVID-19 cases a day in Bacolod City, and 120-150 in Negros Occidental, he said.
Western Visayas registered its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day Thursday at 654 with 13 deaths, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
Bacolod City had 142 new cases for a total of 1,257 active cases and three new deaths, the DOH said.
Negros Occidental had 125 new cases and two deaths, the DOH said. The province had 1,528 active cases on Thursday, the Provincial Incident Management Team also reported.
The COVID-19 bed occupancy at the CLMMRH and the six private hospitals in the city had reached 90.8 percent on Wednesday, Dr. Chris Sorongon, Bacolod Emergency Operations Center deputy for medical data and analysis, said.
He said of the 214 COVID-19 beds in all seven hospitals in Bacolod, only 21 were available as of Tuesday.
Only three Intensive Care Unit beds were available in private hospitals and 18 regular beds – 10 in private hospitals and 8 at CLMMRH, he said.
Sorongon said they were informed by DOH Regional Director Emilia Monicimpo that CLMMRH was increasing its COVID bed capacity and that it would get 53 additional COVID-19 health care personnel.
But Drilon said the 53 health care personnel being referred to are already existing staff.
What the DOH has assured is that the contracts of the 53 COVID-19 health care personnel would be renewed on June 30, he said.
He said the CLMMRH was increasing its COVID-19 ICU beds from 10 to 15, and its regular COVID-19 beds from 120 to 143.
The new beds will be ready for patients either on Friday or Saturday, he said.
Sorongon said some private hospitals have the capacity to increase their COVID-19 beds but lack nurses to care for their patients.
This is because numerous hospital health care workers have been hit with COVID-19 and are in quarantine, he said.
The Bacolod Adventist Medical Center issued a public advisory stating that its COVID-19 bed-capacity has reached full capacity.
The DOH is trying to increase COVID beds and health care workers in Bacolod, Sorongon said.
Bacolod City has also appealed for health care workers from the Army to augment hospital personnel, he added.
The six private hospitals in the city are the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital, Riverside Medical Center, Metro Bacolod Hospital and Medical Center, South Bacolod General Hospital and The Doctors’ Hospital.*