THE coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation in Cebu City is improving, but critical care occupancy in hospitals remains high and deaths this month alone have neared 40.
City Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the death toll is still high with 39 deaths logged in the first 12 days of September, bringing total deaths due and related to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic to 1,294, based on EOC data.
The case fatality rate in the city, as of Sept. 11, was 3.28 percent.
Garganera also said the hospitals still need to breathe.
On Sept. 10, the critical care occupancy rate in 15 hospitals in the city was 61.9 percent out of the 971 beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients.
The EOC record shows eight hospitals in the city are in the safe zone of up to 60 percent; two were moderate; two were high risk; and three were in the critical zone.
The active cases of Covid-19 in Cebu City, as of Sept. 11, 2021, were down to 1,672, much lower than the around 3,000 last August.
But Garganera said the daily cases are still averaging in the three digits. On Sept. 11, the EOC recorded 81 additional cases, but on Sept. 10, it recorded 129 cases.
Garganera said Cebu City still recorded a daily positivity rate beyond the ideal positivity rate of five percent set by the World Health Organization.
On Sept. 11, the EOC recorded a 10.80 percent positivity rate out of the 778 individuals tested.
The city has recorded 39,430 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.
Garganera urged the public not to be complacent, saying the city has already had three surges, and can’t afford to have a fourth surge in the last quarter of the year.
“We need to bring the cases down,” he said. (JJL)