CEBU, Philippines — Central Visayas is back among the top five regions with the most number of active Covid-19 cases over the last 14 days at 2,252 based on the Department of Health tracker.
All LGUs concerned, except for Siquijor, have an increasing trend in Covid-19 cases.
As of August 8, the region was left with 1,845 active cases after some patients had already recovered.
Central Visayas saw as low as only 32 cases last May 5, then the number slowly increased in the next two months.
Among LGUs in the region, Cebu City currently has the most active cases with 692, while fellow highly urbanized city of Lapu-Lapu has 147 and Mandaue, 165.
Cebu province, minus the HUCs, on the other hand, has 441 cases while Bohol has 220, Negros Oriental has 166, and Siquijor has 14.
All LGUs concerned, except for Siquijor, have an increasing trend in Covid-19 cases.
All the region’s hospital facilities, though, are still operating at a very safe level at only 37.5% beds utilized.
There are, however, 42 ICU beds for Covid-19 currently occupied and 45 mechanical ventilators in use.
More variant cases
Aside from that, DOH officer-in-charge Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire disclosed the other day that an additional 10 cases of the BA.5 variant had been detected in the region.
In total, there are 906 additional BA.5 cases detected in the country with 814 of them already tagged as recovered, 49 still undergoing isolation while outcomes of the rest of the patients are still being verified.
Despite having the most number of cases at the moment, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is not so much worried as he has three of the “best minds” in mitigating Covid-19 with him — Dr. Mary Jean Loreche and the Feliciano couple ret. col. Mel and his wife Mia.
Rama himself has just recovered from Covid-19 and was asymptomatic.
“Covid cases are not only in Cebu. In fact it is a concern but not really as serious as it used to be,” said Rama.
Rama, while still in Manila, already instructed those assigned to go over matters regarding the city’s fight against Covid-19 to check on the present situation.
He is also looking into Emergency Operations Center(EOC) after a “paradigm shift” attending to other matters including dengue aside from Covid-19.
The city’s vaccination drive also remains, with the unvaccinated and those unboosted being encouraged to do it now to protect themselves from the severity of the disease if infected. —Decemay P. Padilla, JMD (FREEMAN)