THE country saw 641 deaths from Covid-19 last week, with an average of 92 fatalities reported a day.

According to the Health Ministry’s weekly epidemiological report, the number of deaths increased by 42.1% in the week of May 30 to June 5, compared with the previous week.

The uptrend in the number of Covid-19 fatalities has been noted for 10 weeks.

“(There were) 3,291 cumulative deaths, with a case fatality rate of 0.54% as of June 5,” the report said.

Apart from that, active cases increased by 23.3% in the week under review to 85,607.

Last week’s active caseload represented 14% of the total cases reported in the country so far.

The ministry said active cases have been on the rise for the past eight weeks.

“A total of 521,676 patients have recovered, which represents 85.4% of the cumulative cases,” it said.

Meanwhile, there were 886 cases in intensive care units (ICUs) as of June 5.

ICU cases have been on an uptrend for the past 11 weeks, the ministry said.

The number of patients requiring respiratory support has also been on the rise since week 11.

About half of the ICU cases as of June 5, required respiratory support.

“An average of 436 ICU cases required ventilation for week 22, a 13.0% increase compared with the week before,” it said.

As for hospital bed occupancy, 78% of the 10,896 beds allocated in public healthcare facilities for Covid-19 were occupied while 48% of the 1,244 beds in private hospitals were taken up.

Meanwhile, ICU beds were fully maxed out with an occupancy rate of 103%. There were 1,133 ICU beds allocated for Covid-19 cases.

The ministry said an average of 8,725 public hospital beds were occupied last week, which is 4% lower than the previous week.

“An average of 17,388 beds are occupied in low-risk quarantine and treatment centres, a reduction of 7% compared with the previous week,” it said.

“An average of 1,527 public ICU beds are occupied (90%), a 3% increase from the previous week,” it added.

As for ventilators, an average of 1,291 public ventilators were used. This represents an increase of 1% from the previous week.

Meanwhile, the occupancy at private hospitals dipped by 6% to an average of 659 beds.

As for ICU beds at private hospitals, the average number of beds occupied was at 75.

This is 11% lower than the previous week.

There are 100 Covid-19 hospitals in the country, comprising of 96 public health facilities, three teaching hospitals and one military hospital.

In addition to that, there are 131 low-risk quarantine and treatment centres nationwide. – June 9, 2021.