By Robina Asido

Hospital bed capacity in areas placed under Alert Level 4 reached to more than 70 percent, a Palace official said on Friday.

"The IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) decided on Kalinga, Northern Samar, Mountain Province and Ifugao because its bed utilization has breached to more than 71 percent and the two-week growth rate as well as the average daily attack rate (ADAR) are high," Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo Nograles said during the Palace press briefing.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the areas placed under Alert Level 4 were having a difficult time in dealing with increasing COVID-19 cases.

"We see that these areas are struggling, that is why we decide to escalate them compared to other areas," she said.

Nograles said there are areas that were not placed under Alert Level 4 as their hospital bed capacity can still be expanded.

"We are looking at some areas... where although the bed utilization rate has breached, there is a chance that the dedicated beds in those areas can be expanded," he said.

"The IATF, NTF (National Task Force Against COVID-19) and DOH are now coordinating with them. If they will increase the percentage of of dedicated beds for COVID in their authorized bed capacities, they will not breach (the) Alert Level 4 category because their bed utilization will go down to less than 71 percent," he added.

Vergiere said they are giving time for local government units in areas that have only allocated less than 50 percent to expand their bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.

"We are giving time to our local governments with less than 50 percent allocated beds for COVID-19 to increase their bed allocation," she said.

Vergeire also noted that all the regional task forces and the regional directors of every agency have also been directed to prepare their local governments for COVID-19 surge in their areas.

"Hospitals, both public and private, should allocate at least 30 percent for private and 50 percent for public of their hospital beds for COVID-19," she said.

However, Nograles assures that the government will not hesitate to escalate these areas to Alert Level 4 if their local government fails to expand their hospital bed capacity.

"We are monitoring this, but if they cannot expand it or it will increase more between today, tomorrow and the next days, like we said, we will not hesitate to escalate the Alert Level 4 if needed so we are monitoring everything," he said. DMS