MANDAUE City’s Covid-19 cases are going up with a current positivity rate of 15.83 percent.
The City’s isolation facilities have also reached a 70 to 80 percent utilization rate this week.
However, August Lizer Malate, head of Mandaue’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), explained to SunStar Cebu that the figures cannot yet be considered critical.
Malate said the City’s isolation facilities are mostly occupied since Mandaue implements a longer quarantine period for each patient.
Under the City’s guidelines, a Covid patient must comply with the 14-day isolation period which can extend to 21 days depending on the patient’s antibody count.
Household transmission
Malate said since the common trend in transmission is now in households, as much as possible, patients are pulled out from their homes if these are not conducive to isolation or if the patient has other family members living in the same house.
“Before, only one or two people in one household get the virus. Now, everyone gets hit. If we can see that there are several cases in the house, we pull them all out,” Malate said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
The Norkis Park Isolation Center currently has 64 admissions with 15 remaining beds available, while the Mandaue Central Isolation Unit (MCIU) has 84 patients admitted with 30 remaining beds.
The City has yet to admit Covid-19 cases in the former North Bus Terminal which is one of the identified isolation facilities in Mandaue.
‘Plateau’
Despite the increasing utilization rate of its isolation centers, Malate said they have seen a plateau in the number of cases in Mandaue City.
He said compared to the months of January and February 2021 when the EOC saw an increase of three to five percent in the positivity rate every 15 days, the positivity rate increased by only 1.2 percent this March which is a good trend, Malate said.
In January, out of 6,936 individuals tested, 405 were found positive which is equivalent to a positivity rate of 5.84 percent.
In February, out of 8,271 individuals tested, 1,702 were found positive. This represents a positivity rate of 12.96 percent.
From March 1 to 17, out of 6,318 individuals tested, 15.83 percent or 1,000 people tested positive — a 1.2 percent rise from last month’s positivity rate.
Mountain barangays
In Cebu City, the EOC reported that around 13 barangays no longer had Covid-19 transmissions in the past two weeks.
Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera, who is also EOC’s deputy chief implementer, said majority of the 13 barangays are located in the mountain areas.
Garganera refused to divulge the names of the barangays to encourage village officials not to be complacent but instead, continue with their work in preventing the spread of Covid-19.
Barangay Guadalupe remains on top of the city’s villages with the most number of Covid-19 active cases, with 113 cases reported in the past 10 days.
Barangay Pasil, which had the most number of cases at the beginning of 2021, now has only two remaining active cases.
Aside from Guadalupe, other barangays with high numbers of active Covid-19 cases are Talamban (72), Tisa (67), Lahug (65 )and Apas (64).
Cebu City has recorded 20,095 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 17,447 now fully recovered.
A total of 790 people have died from the disease in Cebu City.
Currently, the city has 1,858 active cases, majority of which are recovering in barangay centers, quarantine facilities and accredited hotels for isolation. (PAC / JKV)