Over 5,000 have died of COVID-19 in Central Visayas

CEBU, Philippines — Over 5,000 people in Central Visayas have died since the COVID-19 pandemic started, data from the Department of Health-7 showed.

The region tallied 5,044 cumulative deaths related to COVID-19 as of October 1. The following day, October 2, 48 more deaths were added to the list.

Deaths in Cebu province, at 2,245, account for a major bulk of the total regional deaths.

Cebu City contributes 1,420 deaths; Lapu-Lapu City, 398; and Mandaue City, 388.

Deaths in Bohol are at 313; Negros Oriental, 317; and Siquijor, 11.

Based on the DOH’s nationwide tracker, Central Visayas is one of the regions and Cebu province is among the local government units with the most number of total deaths.

At the moment, Central Visayas has 10,322 active cases, including the 726 additional ones posted on October 2.

Cebu City, meanwhile, logged additional 60 fresh cases on the same date, the biggest over a nine-day period.

Based on Cebu City Emergency Operations Center data, 64 new cases were confirmed from the 1,011 tested on the same date. This translates to 6.33% positivity rate, which was the highest this week and higher than the World Health Organization threshold of 5%.

Interestingly, Cebu City last Saturday logged its lowest daily positivity rate since June of this year at 2.93% with only 30 out of 1,025 tested ending up positive.

Cebu City’s active cases are going low, though, at 710.

“We ended the (third) surge with more or less 500-600 deaths in three months’ time,” said EOC deputy chief implementer and City Councilor Joel Garganera.

“Delta virus was really a killer; transmissibility was high, disease progression to critical was fast, patients infected with delta were almost always symptomatic. But this season has ended. Still, Cebu City is victorious in this fight,” he added.

Garganera reiterated that complacency remains to be the enemy.

“Get vaccinated and strictly follow the minimum health standards,” he said. — JMD (FREEMAN)