President Rodrigo Duterte asked personal hospitals to prepare their beds for patients with coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) as cases continue to increase.
In his public speech monday night, Duterte said the government needed the personal sector to care for those who had contracted the disease.
“Kung sana ho madagdagan ninyo (I hope I can increase the number of beds) because, still, the number is increasing,” he added.
The president made the call after the Philippines raised a number of Covid-19 deaths in one day to 259. The country recorded 4,699 new infections on Monday, bringing the total to 265,888.
Duterte said the infection varies.
Others are falling behind, and this is probably because ‘yung (of) past infection na hindi na-detect (which we could not detect) at the peak of the pandemic.
Then mayroon pa hong mga naiwan (so there are unreated citizens) , he added.
“Alam naman ninyo na hindi lang tayo ang tinamaan (You know we are not the only country that has suffered), so it will pass far away,” the president said.
“Everyone will ever know that there was this wonderful epidemic and that we were able to deal with it with a lot of help and tulong ng kababayan (the assistance of our compatriots),” he said.
The Ministry of Health (DoH) calls for personal hospitals to allocate 20% of their beds to patients with Covid-19, while public hospitals have been asked to separate 30%.
As of September 13, the DoH reported that there are 21,500 beds for patients with Covid-19.
On Tuesday, the Philippines registered 3,544 new cases, bringing the total to 269,407.
The National Capital Region recorded 690 new cases, followed by Cavite, Rizal, Negros Occidental and Bulacan.
Worldwide, another 29 million people have the disease. The World Health Organization has said that 922,252 have died from the disease.
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