City posts 5,608 cases

CEBU, Philippines — In less than a month, from less than 30 cases in December, Cebu City’s active cases ballooned to 5,608 as of Friday.

This number is the highest the city recorded since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The highest number the city recorded before the current surge was 4,961 on August 21, 2021, data from the Department of Health (DOH)-7 showed.  At that time, the city was dealing with the onslaught of the Delta variant.

This time, the rapid rise of cases is said to be driven by the Omicron variant, which gets transmitted like wildfire, as seen in the capital and other parts of the world.

On January 20, 2022, the city logged its highest number of new cases in a day at 994 based on DOH-7 data. Data from the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) even showed a higher number at 1,126.

Positivity rate is now at 50 percent as half of the 2,252 tested turned out positive. The highest positivity rate noted recently was on January 19 at 51.72 percent with 825 out the 1,595 tested turning out positive.

Breakdown

Based on EOC data, infections are seen across all age brackets. Most of the additional cases are those within the 21 to 30 bracket with 413 followed by those in the 31 to 40 bracket with 270, and those in the 41 to 50 age group with 125. More children have also been infected.

 The EOC recorded 47 more under 10 years old and 85 more in the 11 to 20 age group. Breaking the numbers down further, 94 more new cases are from the 51 to 60 age group while 53 new cases are from the 61-70 age group.

Twenty-eight more are from the 71 to 80 bracket, nine are from the 81 to 80 bracket, and two from the 91 to 100 bracket.

Barangays

As of January 21, only three barangays in the city have no active cases – the mountain barangays of Lusaran, Buot, and Paril.

Barangay Guadalupe currently has the most number of active cases at 532 followed by Lahug with 342, Apas with 258, Tisa 247, and Capitol Site with 228.

The number of deaths noted in January, so far, has gone up to 13. The six additional deaths are seniors.

Facilities

The city’s utilization rate in hospitals with COVID wards is at a safe level at 58.6 percent with 425 beds occupied and 300 beds vacant.

The three government hospitals, though, may need to expand as their utilization rate has gone up to high risk at 74.4 percent.

The City government along with the Archdiocese of Cebu and the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas are working together to reopen the IEC3 as a temporary treatment monitoring facility anew.

Aside from IEC3, the city is also working on reopening the Cebu City Quarantine Center.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said they are also looking at expanding the capacity of City Central School as a central isolation center since many are not qualified to isolate at home. As of yesterday, there are 1,595 individuals under home isolation, 351 are isolating in hotels, while 271 are in other isolation facilities.

At least 163 are in hospitals and 206 are in barangay isolation centers. Up to 573 others are waiting to be extracted from their houses. So that healthcare facilities can be ready for severe cases, the city and health authorities are now encouraging those asymptomatic patients and those with only mild symptoms to isolate at home, as long as conditions allow. – JMO (FREEMAN)