Department of Health 12's (Soccsksargen) Covid-19 tracker as of 6 p.m. Wednesday (July 29, 2020)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Hospitals and isolation facilities in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) have enough care resources as of Thursday to accommodate suspected and confirmed patients of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Arjohn Gangoso, health education and promotion officer of Department of Health (DOH) 12, said the bed capacity of Covid-19 patient care centers, hospitals, and isolation or quarantine facilities in the entire region was still considered below the “critical level.”
Gangoso said this covers public and private hospitals, as well as facilities maintained by local government units (LGU).
He noted that out of the total 378 beds available for symptomatic patients, only 99 are currently occupied.
“These (99) are the admitted suspect and confirmed Covid-19 so far in the region,” Gangoso said in a media forum at a mall here.
The DOH-12 had listed at least 17 private and government hospitals in Soccsksargen under Levels 2 and 3 statuses as capable of handling Covid-19 patients.
Several other LGUs, such as this city, Sarangani, South Cotabato, and Kidapawan City have established their own Covid-19 care centers.
For the isolation or “temporary treatment and monitoring centers,” he said the region has a total of 5,705 beds distributed in 502 facilities.
However, only 3,207 of these are currently occupied by locally stranded individuals and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have returned.
Most of them were undergoing the 14-day mandatory quarantine while some were waiting for the results of their confirmatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
In terms of medical personnel, Gangoso said the region’s hospitals still have enough manpower and the agency is currently hiring additional nurses to augment its deployment to rural health units.
As of Thursday morning, the confirmed Covid-19 cases in Soccsksargen have reached 246, with three deaths and 110 recoveries.
On Wednesday night, at least 11 new cases were recorded in the region, with 10 patients having a travel history to Metro Manila and Cebu.
Seven of them were from South Cotabato and two each from Sarangani and North Cotabato, with one still under investigation in terms of travel history.
Sarangani has so far posted the most number of confirmed Covid-19 cases with 65, followed by South Cotabato with 47, Sultan Kudarat with 40, North Cotabato with 36, this city with 30, and Cotabato City with 28.
Aside from the 136 active cases, the DOH-12 and rural health units are monitoring some 122 suspected patients currently confined in undisclosed hospitals and care centers. (PNA)
