The Department of Health (DOH) will designate three government hospitals in Metro Manila to handle coronavirus disease patients, an official said on Friday.

In a press briefing, Health Undersecretary Rosette Vergeire said these are the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital in the city of Manila, the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, and the Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, previously known as the Tala Leprosarium, in Caloocan City.

"UP-PGH has already agreed to be our COVID-19 hospital," she said.

In its advisory, DOH said UP-PGH has begun ceasing admission for non-emergency cases to free up wards and rooms.

"The initiative will require full support from the NCR medical community since additional health care workers will be needed to complement PGH's existing workforce," the DOH said.

UP-PGH has at least 800 bed capacity for free wards. This is on top of private or pay wards. The hospital has about 4,000 regular, contractual, job order, and fellow workers.

In the case of the Lung Center, Vergeire said it will dedicate one wing with 40 beds for COVID-19 patients.

"Because LCP is the referral hospital for patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and lung cancer, care must be taken not to expose these immunocompromised patients," the health department said.

Vergeire said the former Tala Leprosarium will also be turned into another referral hospital for COVID-19 cases.

"The public is encouraged to continue donating blood to ensure we have adequate supply for severe and critical patients. For this purpose, the Philippine Blood Center will not be admitting any suspected COVID-19 patients," the DOH said.

As of March 19, the Philippines has total number of 217 COVID-19 cases with eight recoveries while death toll was at 17. Celerina Monte/DMS