One Hospital Command referrals down at least 70%

MANILA – Referrals to the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) declined by at least 700 the past week.

Dr. Marylaine Padlan, OHCC officer, said the center received an average of 200 to 300 calls daily this week, still higher than December figures but lower than the average 1,000 calls per day during the surge in January caused by the Omicron variant.

Request for isolation of health care workers is also decreasing, according to Padlan.

Most of the concerns were requests for isolation facilities, hospital admission, and other inquiries on Covid-19 cases.

Some callers also inquired about vaccination and protocols for home isolation.

“Karamihan ng mga nare-receive namin ay either asymptomatic or mild sila (Usually, the callers were either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms),” she said during the Laging Handa public briefing.

Calls mostly came from Metro Manila and Calabarzon (Region IV-A) while regional centers got the most calls from the Davao, Ilocos, and Eastern Visayas regions.

Padlan said they had to add more staff to receive the calls during the January surge.

She also reported that hospital utilization rate in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Western, Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, and Caraga, are at moderate risk.

The rest are at low risk.

As of Friday, there are 15,389 active Covid-19 cases after an additional 8,564 infections.