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MANILA - More children are being admitted in hospitals due to COVID-19, the chief of the end-referral medical facility in Bacolod said Tuesday.

Since June, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital has admitted 17 to 18 pediatric coronavirus patients, according to its medical center chief Dr. Julius Drilon. Three of them died, he said.

"Unfortunately, 3 sa kanila ay pumanaw," he told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

"Last year, at the height of our positivity rate dito, di kami nakakita ng bata na inaadmit (We didn't see a child get admitted here)."

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The hospital also tests newborns for COVID-19 after 2 patients contracted the virus within 24 hours, Drilon said.

"We believe that is a vertical transmission...it’s already in the blood or already in the amniotic fluid na yung virus kaya nagpositive ang baby. Imposible naman na less than 24 hours magpa-positive ka," he said.

(We believe that is a vertical transmission...it’s already in the blood or already in the amniotic fluid na yung virus that's why the baby tests positive. It's impossible to test positive in less than 24 hours.)

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The hospital's total bed capacity is 94 percent occupied, with non-COVID wards also getting full, Drilon said.

"Sa COVID area, as of 6 a.m., isa na lang ang bakante namin at I think 8 pa ang dapat maadmit. Ang aming critical care unit ay puno na rin," he said.

(In our COVID area, as of 6 a.m., ionly one bed is vacant and I think 8 patients need to be admitted. Our critical care unit are also full.)

The medical facility will hire up to 23 healthcare workers to augment its workforce, he added.

Bacolod City as of Monday tallied 878 active virus infections out of a total 18,132 cases, according to health department data.

The Philippines, meantime, has logged 2,248,071 total recorded cases, of which 180,293 or 8 percent were active.