MAJORITY or 90 percent of Covid-19 mortalities recorded in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) during the first eight days of August 2021 were unvaccinated individuals.
Dr. Helen Madamba, chief of the VSMMC's Professional and Allied Health Services (Medical Social Service and Health Information Management), said from August 1 to 8, 2021, they had 47 Covid-19 mortalities and 90 percent of them, or about 42 individuals, have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.
"If you want to protect yourself, get yourself vaccinated," she said during the virtual hospital tour of the VSMMC on Friday, August 13.
VSMMC is a Department of Health-retained hospital.
As of August 13, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases at VSMMC was at 3,366, while the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases that were admitted to the hospital was 189.
The hospital has logged a total of 1,371 Covid-19 recoveries and 781 patients transferred to isolation centers.
The VSMMC also logged a total of 832 deaths since the start of the pandemic. These mortalities are from different geographic origins.
As of August 13, a total of 90 out of 99 dedicated Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit beds in VSMMC are already occupied for a utilization rate of 91 percent, while 174 out of its 197 expanded Covid-19 beds are also currently in use.
Moreover, Dr. Reynette Christine Ligaray, chief of the Medical Service Division of the VSMMC, said due to the need to expand Covid-19 wards in the hospital, the VSMMC is intending to temporarily use the new Center for Behavioral Sciences (CBS) building to admit non-Covid patients, from internal medicine and orthopedic patients.
The CBS is projected to accommodate a total of 80 beds.
She said the new CBS building is intended for patients who are "potentially violent or maybe agitated," but currently, it is used as a vaccination center for VSMMC employees and other government employees.
"We intend to use this for moving in of our non-Covid patients so that we can free some of the beds in the main hospital to be converted into beds for Covid," she said.
She said this is also to separate non-Covid patients from Covid patients being taken care of at the main hospital. (WBS)