COVID-19 continues its presence in Central Visayas

CEBU, Philippines — Cases of COVID-19 in Central Visayas have continued to slow down compared to the 2020 and 2021 figures and as restrictions were already lifted, the virus continues to inflict.

“Naa pa man gyud ang COVID although di na parehas sa una kay daghan kaayo ta og cases but dili lang gihapon ta kumpyansa,” said Department of Health-7 regional director Jaime Bernadas.

The DOH-7, in its latest data, reported that Central Visayas has a total of 71 new COVID-19 cases with an average of ten cases daily from March 19 to 25, 2023.

Of the new COVID-19 cases, one died.

DOH-7 said that as of March 25, 2023, 12 patients with severe COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals.

It said that three (5.79 percent) out of the 54 ICU Bed Utilization were currently occupied while 24.40 percent or 179 of the 734 non-ICU COVID-19 beds were occupied.

DOH-7 added that as of March 25, 2023, 19 patients were in critical admissions due to COVID-19.

Based on the DOH COVID-19 Tracker as of March 27, 2023, Central Visaya has a total case of 197,200 with total recoveries of 189,216 and 7,609 deaths. To date, it has a total of 375 active cases.

The tracker further shows that the majority of those infected with COVID-19 in Central Visayas are ages 21 to 30 years old or 27,755 cases as compared to ages 81 and up with 2,539 cases and 242 cases for ages less than one year old.

Meanwhile, DOH-7 data further shows that 4,943,540 of the target population in Central Visayas were already vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccines as of March 27, 2023. While there were an additional 225 individuals vaccinated from March 20 to 26, 2023.

The target is 70 percent of the total population which is 5,705,754 individuals.

Earlier, Van Phillip Baton, DOH-7 program manager of Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, said that the region has already reached the target of 70 percent for the general population to be vaccinated but vaccination shall continue until supply lasts.

Also, a total of 1,162,153 individuals were vaccinated with the booster shots as of March 27, 2023. There were an additional 1,090 individuals vaccinated with booster shots from March 20 to 26, 2023.

While 61.18 percent of the targeted A2 or senior citizens group were vaccinated with their primary series. Central Visayas has a total senior citizens population of 677,106.

DOH-7 continue to remind the public not to be complacent against the threat of COVID-19 and continue to adhere the minimum public health standard. — GMR (FREEMAN)