The Department of Health (DOH-6) has urged hospitals in Western Visayas to allocate more beds for patients infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Private and public hospitals in the region have a total bed allocation of 869, according to Dr. Jocelyn Te, DOH-6 spokesperson.

More than half or 489 of the beds are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients, Te noted.

The DOH-6 is expecting the occupancy rate of dedicated beds for infected patients to rise further as more new infections are recorded every day.

Yesterday, Aug. 27, the health department reported 158 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, pushing the total case count to 3,895.

The DOH-6 asked the hospitals to allocate at least 30 percent of their beds for coronavirus-positive patients.

“Padayon kita nga nagapakig-angot sa aton mga hospital diri nga kon mahimo mapadamo nila ang ila beds para sa mga na-infect sang COVID-19,” Te said.IMT