Eastern Visayas logs record spike in COVID-19 cases

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Eastern Visayas logged a record single-day surge in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

The Department of Health (DOH)-Eastern Visayas office said 173 new cases were recorded, the highest since the pandemic began.

At least 103 cases were recorded in Northern Samar. Sixty of the cases are from Laoang town, 48 of them inmates in a sub-provincial jail.

Allen Berbon, Northern Samar information officer, said operations at the Laoang hall of justice and municipal trial courts were suspended for two weeks for disinfection and contact tracing.

Catarman logged 36 new cases, most of them exposed to previous patients. Seven of the patients are health workers.

Southern Leyte recorded 47 new cases, 40 of them in Maasin City. Leyte logged nine cases while Samar had 10.

The DOH-Eastern Visayas office said the region has 5,493 total cases, 716 of them active.

Still COVID-free

Meanwhile, 12 towns in Eastern Visayas remain COVID-free.

Balangkayan, Can-avid, Hernani, Jipapad and Maslog in Eastern Samar; Biri, San Antonio and San Vicente in Northern Samar; Sto. Niño, Tagapul-an and Talalora in Samar, and Hinundayan in Southern Leyte have not recorded any case since March, according to the DOH regional office.

In Calabarzon, 1,175 cases were recorded, also on Tuesday, an increase of 139.8 percent compared to only 490 logged on Monday.

DOH regional director Eduardo Janairo said Cavite has the most number of active cases at 5,414. Laguna has the highest confirmed cases at 13,555.

In Pangasinan, which has a total 1,346 cases, 18 towns and three cities are on the COVID watchlist.

These are Dagupan City, Sta. Barbara, Lingayen, Malasiqui, Mangaldan, Calasiao, Urdaneta City, Balungao, Anda, Bugallon, Alcala, Binalonan, Manaoag, Binmaley, Rosales, San Fabian, Labrador, San Carlos City, Bolinao, Sison and Villasis. – Ed Amoroso, Arnell Ozaeta, Eva Visperas