‘Cebu City healthcare facilities near critical level’

MANILA, Philippines  — With 61 of its 80 barangays reporting new coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, healthcare facilities in Cebu City are nearing “critical level.”

Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 49 barangays were also found to have “clustering” or two or more cases.

“With these findings, we looked at the capacity of the healthcare system and we found out that facilities in Cebu City are approaching critical level,” Vergeire said.

She noted that as of Wednesday, 55 percent of beds at intensive care units were occupied. The critical level is 70 percent.

At least 84 percent of isolation beds were occupied while the utilization rate of mechanical ventilators was at 64.9 percent.

“Looking at the critical care utilization and number of cases... Cebu City is really a hotspot. That was the initial epidemiologic analysis. We are doing this everyday to see the trend,” Vergeire said.

With the arrival of police Special Action Force commandos yesterday, there are now around 2,000 uniformed personnel deployed in Cebu City to help enforce the protocols of the enhanced community quarantine.

Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, Central Visayas police director, said  the augmentation forces would focus on quarantine patrol, operations and monitoring in containment zones.

Ferro said personnel of the Cebu-Bohol-Siquijor task force, Bureau of  Fire Protection and barangay officials are also on standby.

17 fatalities

The Cebu City Health Department (CCHD) reported 95 new cases and 17 fatalities due to COVID-19 yesterday.

Most of the cases are in Barangay Basak San Nicolas, with seven, and Capitol Site, six. Barangays Guadalupe, Punta and Talamban recorded five each.

The new cases bring the total number of infections in Cebu City to 4,702. The death toll is now 136.

The CCHD said 48 have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,369.

Barangay lockdown

Meanwhile, Aringay town in La Union reported its first COVID-19 case yesterday.

Mayor Eruc Sibuma placed Barangay Sumara, where the patient, who arrived from Valenzuela on June 21 resides, on lockdown.

In Isabela, two barangays were also on lockdown after two overseas Filipino workers who arrived in Naguilian and Ilagan City tested positive for the virus.

Two new cases were also recorded in Binmaley and Dagupan City in Pangasinan on Thursday.

Nine new cases, including a one-year-old boy, were recorded in Bataan. There are now 182 cases in the province.

More LSIs infected

In Eastern Visayas, 16 new cases, all of them locally stranded individuals, were recorded yesterday.

Ten of the latest cases are in Sogod, Southern Leyte, the first in the town.

The other cases are in Kananga, Leyte, Libago in Southern Leyte and San Jorge and Catbalogan City in Samar.

The DOH regional office said three deaths were recorded in the past 10 days.

The return of stranded residents to Eastern Visayas was suspended for two weeks as a precautionary measure.

The DOH had earlier said Cebu City, Cebu province, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Leyte and Samar are emerging as COVID-19 “hotspots.” Raymund Catindig, Ric Sapnu, Eva Visperas, Miriam Desacada, Iris Hazel Mascardo, Alicia Ivy Chua/The Freeman