Photo Release

On Covid-19 Occupancy Rate in Hospitals: Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III asks Dr. Antonio Dans about the current situation of COVID-19 cases in hospitals during the continuation of the Senate Committee of the Whole hybrid hearing on the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program Friday, January 15, 2021. Dans, an internist at the Philippine General Hospital and a member of the Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 (HPAAC), the group who called for the re-imposition of an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila to check the surge of COVID-19 cases last August 1, said latest data showed a 33 percent occupancy rate in hospitals. “There’s currently a slack in occupancy rate which is 33 percent. But we are expecting a surge in a week or two due to the Christmas holidays and the recent traslacion of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo,” Dans said. In the same hearing, Pimentel also asked vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. on the government’s target of COVID-19 inoculation and was told that the immunization program would be for three years. “Our vision is to have all the population vaccinated but our immediate target for this year is to have the herd immunity. If we achieve the 148 million doses we will be on track,” Galvez said. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)