COVID-19 cases in Cebu City still under control: DOH-7 belies epicenter tag

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City has overtaken Quezon City with a large margin in the number of daily cases but the Department of Health (DOH) - 7 disagrees with Octa Research tagging the Queen City of the South as epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic anew.

“I totally disagree with Octa Research’ representative’s statement over the weekend that Cebu City is back as the epicenter,” said DOH-7 chief pathologist and spokesperson, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche.

She said the city remains in control of the situation unlike last year, from May to July, when cases overwhelmed hospitals. This was the time when Cebu City was tagged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines.

“While it may be true that our cases are still on the rise, we’ re still in control. Our current situation now is much different from last May to July 2020,” Loreche said.

She said health care capacity is able to meet challenges, so far, as far as admissions and handling of COVID-19 and non-COVID patients are concerned.

“Our healthcare capacity is able to meet the challenges in the admissions and care of our COVID and non-COVID patients,” Loreche said.

In Cebu City’s EOC monitoring, critical care utilization in private hospitals is still at 42.4 percent. As far as COVID-19 beds is concerned, 44.1 percent regular COVID beds are occupied while 28.4 percent ICU COVID are occupied, which means 520 beds are occupied in both classifications.

“Our critical care utilization is at the safe zone,” Loreche said.

There are also enough health care workers assigned to COVID-19 patients, she said. Of the 1,991 workers, 1,837 are on active duty while 154 others currently on quarantine.

Aside from that, temporary treatment and monitoring facilities are already in place and aggressive testing has been done.

Cebu City has posted a 17.68 percent positivity rate out of the 1,289 tested in February 13. This has pushed Octa to entertain the thought that there is already a UK variant around although samples sent to the Philippine Genomic Center were found to be negative of a new variant.

“Our EOC is efficient and accounts for the tested individuals due to the aggressive contact tracing, extraction and isolation.  Our testing capacity is in place and one other thing- if you compare the total no of tested individuals in Cebu city versus any other place, we have the bigger share of it,” Loreche said.

Based on data from the DOH central office, Cebu City has 1,848 active cases as against Quezon City’s 921 and Cebu Province’s 892. Davao City has 836 while Manila has 659 cases.

DOH-7’s data is even higher at 2,917, including the 235 additional cases on February 13.

Cebu City’s EOC, for its part, has confirmed 2,566.

While DOH-7 is trying to figure out any possible mutation and variants of the coronavirus, it reminds Cebuanos that the flu season and dengue season may worsen possible COVID-19 infection.

“It's flu season and dengue days are also here. And as we keep reminding everyone to have their flu shots and to implement the necessary protocols to protect our children from aedes aegypti, the causative agent for dengue,” Loreche said. — JMO (FREEMAN)