State-run Philippine General Hospital has yet to see a "significant" drop in the number of admitted patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) adding that an extension of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) would ''probably help'' in lowering the transmission, an official said on Wednesday.

In the "Laging Handa" public briefing, PGH spokesman Jonas del Rosario said placing NCR and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal under a two-week ECQ from March 29 to April 11 "slightly" helped in lessening the number of COVID-19 patients.

"Before the two-week ECQ, our number of patients was already about 240, close to 250, our bed capacity is 250. So, we almost reach full capacity. These past two weeks, it slowly went down, so now, our average (number of COVID-19) patients is 220," he said.

He expressed hope that the downtrend will continue.

"So there is a little bit of improvement, but I would say it's not yet that significant in a way because before, in March, number of admitted patients in PGH is less than 100," Del Rosario said.

Asked if the PGH still sees the need to extend MECQ, the second most restrictive quarantine classification next to ECQ, Del Rosario said, "Extension of MECQ to us will probably help in further decreasing the transmission hopefully and then less people will get hospitalized."

He said there was "almost no dent" in the number of COVID-19 patients in PGH despite the ECQ and MECQ during the past weeks.

The MECQ in Metro Manila and the adjacent four provinces as well as in other few other areas in the country has been in effect from April 12 until April 30.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to approve new quarantine classifications in various places in the country on or before the end of the month. Celerina Monte/DMS