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MANILA—The hospital bed capacity in Cagayan De Oro City has reached critical level, as COVID-19 cases continued to rise, the Department of Health in Northern Mindanao said Wednesday.

The city's 1,329 active infections make up a third of the region's active virus cases, according to Dr. Jose Llacuna Jr., regional director of DOH-Northern Mindanao.

The figure brings the critical care utilization rate of the city to 88.9 percent, Llacuna said.

Private hospitals have been asked to increase their COVID bed capacity to 20 percent, while state-run facilities were told to increase to 30 to 50 percent of their capacity, he added.

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"We’re asking through our regulatory and licensing enforcement division to the private hospitals to have this requirement be fulfilled kasi (because) we work as partners po," he told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

He added that 2 COVID-19 variants have been detected in the region but did not specify.

"We have a close monitoring of these, 'yung initial 2 variants. 'Yung Indian wala pa po, hopefully wala pa po," he said.

(We have identified 2 variants. We have a close monitoring of these initial 2 variants. We have yet 2 detect the Indian variant, hopefully there's none yet.)

Temporary treatment medical facilities (TTMFs) are being constructed by the DOH, the Department of Public Works and Highways, and local governments region-wide, Llacuna said.

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The Philippines on Tuesday tallied 3,972 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total to 1,188,672, of which 48,201 or 4.1 percent were active infections.

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