‘Cebu City Healthcare Facilities Near Critical Level'

With 61 of its 80 barangays reporting new coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, healthcare facilities in Cebu City are nearing “critical level.”

- Sheila Crisostomo

Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 49 barangays were also found to have “clustering” or two or more cases.

“With these findings, we looked at the capacity of the healthcare system and we found out that facilities in Cebu City are approaching critical level,” Vergeire said.

She noted that as of Wednesday, 55 percent of beds at intensive care units were occupied. The critical level is 70 percent.

At least 84 percent of isolation beds were occupied while the utilization rate of mechanical ventilators was at 64.9 percent.

“Looking at the critical care utilization and number of cases... Cebu City is really a hotspot. That was the initial epidemiologic analysis. We are doing this everyday to see the trend,” Vergeire said.