THE Davao City Covid-19 Task Force noted that household transmissions due to social gatherings have contributed to the rise in Covid-19 cases in the city.
"I-avoid nato ang mga (Let us avoid) social gathering. Kadaghanan sa atong mga (Most of our) cases is home transmission or household transmission because of mga (these) social gatherings at home," Davao City Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Schlosser said among the social gatherings being conducted at home are birthday parties.
"Household transmission siya because of social gatherings at home. Kanang gina-hold nila sa ilang home. Naay mag-birthday, unya mangimbita'g mga bisita. Ginatawag gihapon nato na'g (These are activities at home such as birthdays, wherein there are visitors. We still call it) household transmission kasi ang nagkahawa-ay na is kapamilya-pamilya-pamilya na," she said.
(There is household transmission because of social gatherings at home. These are activities at home such as birthdays, wherein there are visitors. We still call it household transmission
since there is a clustering of infections among families.)
She understood that it is hard to avoid social gatherings because of Filipino culture, but urged them to set aside these activities.
"We are battling a pandemic. We are battling an enemy nga di nato makit-an. So dapat mas naa tay pakabana. Naa tay kanunayong pagbantay sa atong sarili ug sa atong kapamilya (that is beyond our visible eyes. The more we should be vigilant with ourselves and among families)," the official said.
Based on the recent Covid-19 data, Schlosser said the city has had a daily average of 300 to 400 new cases daily for the past weeks.
She added the city was able to record more than 500 new cases in a single day.
Schlosser said these figures are "stressful" for the health sector, considering they do not want the critical care facilities to be overwhelmed.
"We do not want to overwhelm our health system. Dili nato gusto mapuno atoang hospitals, mapuno ato TTMF [temporary treatment and monitoring facilities], unya mapasagdan nato atong katawhan nga dili sila matagaan og (We do not want our hospitals and TTMFs to be overwhelmed and we would neglect our patients and not give them) medical attention," she said.
She urged the public not to be complacent as there is still a persistent surge in cases, as seen on the Covid-19 data.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city's TTMFs utilization rate has already reached 65 percent and is expected to be filled up depending on the turnover of cases.
"Every day, we still look for facilities na pwede natong i-open for TTMFs (that we can open for TTMFs)," Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
Davao City has 3,084 Covid-19 beds and of this number, 2,500 are TTMF/isolation beds.
The mayor said 250 more TTMF beds are currently being added to augment the current supply.
Duterte-Carpio also bared that the city's Covid-19 bed capacity is full in all public and private hospitals.
The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) has catered to patients more than its allotted or prepared beds.
The hospital on its official Facebook page said as of September 8, all its intensive care unit beds and ward beds for Covid-19 patients were fully occupied.
She also said the possible extension of the SPMC emergency room to another location is also being eyed.
The City Government, SPMC and Department of Health in Davao Region have yet to discuss the plan.