Central Visayas monitored for having highest fatality rate in Philippines

CEBU, Philippines —  Central Visayas has the highest COVID-19 case fatality rate in the country for 2020 and 2021 combined, national health authorities said.

Case fatality rate is the ratio of deaths to the total number of confirmed cases.

Department of Health undersecretary Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency is closely monitoring Central Visayas, along with seven other regions, following the increasing number of deaths here.

Data presented by Vergeire yesterday showed that Central Visayas has the highest CFR in 2020 at 5.43% followed by Caraga at 4.41% and the Zamboanga Peninsula at 3.98%.

For 2021 so far, MIMAROPA tops the list at 2.94%, followed by Central Visayas at 2.37% and BARMM at 2.31%.

For 2020-2021 combined, Central Visayas has the highest CFR at 3%, followed by MIMAROPA with 2.83% and BARMM at 2.48%, CARAGA at 2.46 %, and the Zamboanga Peninsula at 2.32%.

Based on DOH-7’s latest case bulletin, the majority of the deaths in Central Visayas are from Cebu province.

As of September 19, Cebu province already has 2,092 deaths, followed by Cebu City with 1,324, Lapu-Lapu with 357, and Mandaue with 351.

Negros Oriental, for its part, has 262, while Bohol with 181, and Siquijor with six.

At a national level, deaths have been increasing since the last week of July and a new peak was seen in mid-August, said Vergeire.

The bad news is, the numbers are still increasing.

“We are closely monitoring Regions 3, 4A, the National Capital Region, Region 7, 2, 6 and 1 and CAR as these regions posted the highest deaths in the first two weeks of September,” she said.

Unvaccinated casualties

Unvaccinated individuals still comprise the most deaths in private hospitals in Cebu from September 1 to 18, 2021, the Visayas COVID-19 Vaccination Operation Center said yesterday.

VVOC spokesperson and Department of Health-7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said total of 164 individuals died during this period.

Of this number, 122 or 74 percent were unvaccinated, 31 persons or 19 percent were fully vaccinated, while 11 or seven percent were partially vaccinated.

Loreche said that these deaths were either due to COVID-19 alone or COVID-related, which means they died with comorbidities while infected with COVID-19.

“Ang bakuna ay mabisa at ating gagamitin para tayo ay magwagi sa pandemyang ito. These latest figures show that we have to encourage and promote vaccination,” Loreche said.

She added that the probability of ending up dead is much lower if one is vaccinated.

Loreche further explained that there could still be breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated but still chances of death and severe case or being in an ICU are still lower as compared to those who are unvaccinated.

Cebu City

Meanwhile, Cebu City Emergency Operations Center deputy chief implementer City Councilor Joel Garganera said the 53 deaths recorded by DOH-7 under Cebu City last Sunday were not due to a surge of deaths.

Some of the deaths, he said, were still from some weeks ago but had only been validated by DOH lately.

Garganera said the delay in the synchronization of their data was due to the lack of manpower from DOH as some of the EOC personnel also got infected with COVID-19.

Garganera, however, said deaths in the city continue to increase still.

EOC has noted 77 deaths so far for this month. In August, total deaths were 292. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol with Decemay P. Padilla, JMD (FREEMAN)