657 TANKS PER DAY: Oxygen use in city hospitals at critical level

The high-demand for medical grade oxygen amid the Covid-19 pandemic has also affected hospitals in Iloilo City as daily average oxygen consumption spiked to 657 tanks per day.

The fast-depleting Covid-19 emergency supplies like oxygen amid the rising cases of Covid-19, has prompted Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas to ask for help from the national government.

In his letter addressed to Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Health Secretary Francisco Duque, National Task Force Chief Delfin Lorenzana, and Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez last Sept. 17, Treñas sought the help of the national government amid the increasing demand for medical-grade oxygen in the metro.

According to the mayor, the daily average consumption of oxygen in the city is at 657 tanks and even peaked at 973 tanks per day.

“One severe patient on a high flow oxygen consumes an average of three tanks in 24 hours. Local supplier of Iloilo City hospitals informed the Iloilo City Covid Team that 35 liters of liquid oxygen are needed to fill in one oxygen tank,” he added.

In his letter, the mayor also reported that the city’s health care utilization rate (HCUR) is still classified as high-risk at 73.05%, as of Sept. 16.

“This rate reflects the significant number of patients admitted by the hospitals, needless to say, that most of them are coming from the neighboring provinces,” he said.

Out of the 692 beds, 540 beds have been occupied.

The city also recorded a significant increase of Covid-19 cases.

From Sept. 1 to 14, the city logged 2,150 cases with a daily average of 154 cases per day compared to the 1,072 cases in the previous month. This is equivalent to a 101 percent increase in the number of cases.

Treñas expressed his concern last Friday that once the supply of liquid oxygen will not be available in the next two days, the city will no longer have available resources.

Recently, the mayor revealed that oxygen supply in Panay has been affected by the depleting supplies in Cebu. (ERS)