IF things should work out well for Bohol with this threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID), health experts at the national level suggest capacitating local hospitals to be efficient enough to treat the disease.
This as Bohol nears its target of making its people immune to the fatal disease that has since killed 682 Boholanos.
Vaccinating 71.57% of its target 80% of eligible population of 1,106,084, Bohol still needs to get to 103,267 individuals to step into the herd immunity threshold which epidemiologists say should beat the pandemic.
An 80% vaccination coverage of its eligible population allows national task force to downgrade Bohol’s COVID alert status to Alert Level 1, which is what the local economy needs to fully recover.
According to the Department of Health, only when COVID can be declared as endemic can the country fully open its economy and allow its people to step into the new normal.
By declaring COVID-19 from being the pandemic into an endemic, this means that COVID may still around but that it has become an insignificant threat in disrupting daily lives, according to the World Health Organization.
However, the Bohol Inter Agency task Force on the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, through its Emergency Operations Center reported, May 27, a critical risk in bed and specialized equipment utilization in its main and COVID dedicated hospital.
At the Gov Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital, Bohol’s only tertiary hospital dedicated to COVID, utilization of its COVID intensive Care Unit beds go 61% with 8 of its 13 beds occupied.
In its COVID ward beds, all the 14 beds have patients on them, reporting a critical risk.
For the hospital’s COVID Isolation beds, its also is at critical risk with all its 14 beds occupied, according to the EOC.
Of its COVID mechanical ventilators, 8 of its 18 units are available.
This also means that Boholanos still have a low confidence in getting treated with COVID at the primary and secondary hospitals scattered all over the province.
While it is understandable that patients are avoiding private secondary hospitals in the city for financial reasons, even government primary hospitals are now taking in as much of the cases.
At Bohol’s primary hospitals, all the 4 COVID ICU beds remain unoccupied, 7 of its 61 COVID ward beds are occupied while 51 of the total 103 COVID isolation beds are occupied.
Of the total 5 COVID mechanical ventilators, only 1 is occupied, as to the EOC.
In its infirmaries, 9 of the 16 total COVID wards are available, 22 of 37 COVID isolation beds are unoccupied and these clinics do not have mechanical ventilators and COVID ICU beds.
With the data, it is shown that Boholanos still do not believe that their local hospitals can effectively manage them if they fall ill with COVID, which sends them to the COVID dedicated hospital in the city and thus, placing such in critical risks.
Until and unless the local hospitals can be adeptly trained to handle cases and the public informed enough of this skill rollout, then, Bohol may still be too far away from declaring COVID here as endemic. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
