DOH-7 expects further rise: Cebu City cases surge past 1,000

CEBU, Philippines —  The total number of recorded coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positive cases in Cebu City has reached 1,090, data showed yesterday.

Mayor Edgardo Labella announced 188 new cases in the city yesterday.

Of the 188, 185 are from Barangay Mambaling; one is from Barangay Suba; one is from Barangay Sawang Calero; and one is from Barangay Sambag 1.

The Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan still has the most number of cases at 332, while Barangay Mambaling has the second most number of cases at 250.

This is followed by Barangay Luz which has a total of 192 cases.

As of yesterday, there are 32 barangays with COVID-19 cases out of the 80 barangays.

One Lapu-Lapu case

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia also reported one new case in Lapu-Lapu City yesterday. Aside from that, no other cases were recorded in other parts of the province.

Cebu province’s cases remain at 28. This is excluding the total number of five health workers who tested positive for the coronavirus disease in the province. Of the five, three are reportedly from the province and two are from Cebu City.

The province’s district and provincial hospitals, as of May 3, reported three admitted Severe Acute Respiratory Infection cases and two admitted Influenza-Like Illness cases yesterday. One of the ILI cases has died.

Among component cities and municipalities, a total number of 4,172 persons are under monitoring and 13 ILI cases noted.

Also, 68,334 individuals have completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Expect numers to rise further

The Department of Health-7 said that the increasing trend of COVID-19 case is bound to continue as the agency will start this week the targeted, strategic community testing in the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue.

DOH-7 Director Jaime Bernadas said in a statement that COVID-19 cases in Region 7 have reached a milestone as it has breached the one thousand mark.

“As always, context should be applied to data. The increase is expected as our contact tracing teams are working double time to test the contacts of those previously tested positive in the community, closed settings and in the health facilities as well as among our repatriates,” said Bernadas.

The expansion in coverage is matched by the increasing capacity of the Sub-National Laboratory located at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Bernadas said that preventive measures are implemented not only to prevent transmission of infection but to also avert a sudden increase of severe cases that might overwhelm the capacity of our health system.

In epidemiology, the idea of slowing a virus' spread so that fewer people need to seek treatment at any given time is known as "flattening the curve."

To “flatten the curve”, he said,  is their goal to keep the demand for hospital admissions low by keeping the mild and moderate cases from progressing to severe conditions.

“We strongly advise our citizens to continue social/physical distancing even as the three provinces of the region namely Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor are now on general community quarantine status. This is no time to be complacent. This is the time to strengthen our vigilance and assume that with an invisible enemy, we are all at risk," Bernadas said.

As for the anti-body rapid tests which will be conducted by the three cities within the week, the regional health chief said that this will be done in tandem with the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and depends on this report, a group will proceed to PCR testing and at the same time they continue with their Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI) surveillance (symptomatic) for PCR tests.

Bernadas also clarified that the anti-body test is not a test for COVID-19 but it is a test for the response of the body to an infectious agent, one of them is COVID.

"That is why it should be used in tandem with PCR. But, it is important also to know the body's response. Therefore, a positive antibody and positive PCR is definitive," he said.

Bernadas further explained that anti-body test when in tandem with PCR is reliable tool for surveillance and incidence mapping in the community.

"This is why this is being done in the tri-cities. This will be a decision making tool to deal with the virus specially when designing community quarantine," Bernadas further said.   JMD (FREEMAN)