CENTRAL Visayas had a total of 151 newly reported Covid-19 cases as of Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021—81 from Cebu City, 25 from Mandaue City, 19 from Cebu Province, 15 from Negros Oriental, 10 from Lapu-Lapu City and one from Bohol.
As for the total number of active cases, Central Visayas had 2,531 active cases—903 from Cebu City, 722 from Negros Oriental, 536 from Cebu Province, 230 from Mandaue City, 115 from Lapu-Lapu City, 22 from Bohol and three from Siquijor.
Also, there were 23,433 total recoveries and 1,461 deaths reported in the region.
With the increase in the number of cases, DOH 7 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche urged the public to be disciplined in following health protocols, especially with a new variant that is said to be highly transmissible.
The DOH 7 awaits the result of the genome sequencing of samples taken from three suspected cases of the United Kingdom (UK) variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Due to the spike in cases in the region, Loreche said it will not be surprising that the variant is already in Central Visayas.
In Cebu City, City Councilor Joel Garganera said the 97 new cases logged on Saturday, Jan. 23, which was the highest daily case recorded since the city was placed under modified general community quarantine in August 2020, came from 36 barangays.
“It’s widely spread,” said Garganera in an interview on Sunday.
The deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency Operations Center said that as of Saturday, 60 of the city’s 80 barangays reported Covid-19 transmissions.
Guadalupe “lockdown”
Barangay Guadalupe, which has implemented strict quarantine policies to slow down the transmission of Covid-19, recorded the highest number of cases in the city with 50.
Guadalupe Barangay Captain Michael Gacasan said the cases are spread out in 30 sitios.
For two Sundays starting Jan. 24, establishments in the barangay will be closed, save for essential establishments like eateries, pharmacies and remittance centers.
The curfew and use of quarantine passes will be strictly implemented in the next two weeks.
Only authorized persons outside of residence (Apor) and those with essential errands are allowed to go out on Sunday.
Gacasan said establishments have been compliant so far.
He said they apprehended 10 residents, mostly minors, for violating community quarantine rules.
He said the violators were brought to the holding area in Barangay Tejero.
“Kasagaran rasonan ta og palit og (Most of them were out to buy) milk tea. Buying milk tea is not that essential,” Gacasan said.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 case in the city has reached 11,861 with 10,257 recoveries. The death toll stands at 702.
Based on the EOC’s data, 55 percent of the city’s 903 active cases are “new cases,” Garganera said.
“New cases” refer to individuals who tested positive without direct exposure to a positive individual. The remaining 45 percent are considered close contacts with first to second degree of exposure to positive individuals.
Nationwide, the DOH central office reported nearly 2,000 new cases on Sunday.
These pushed the total infections in the recent week from Jan. 18 to 24 to 13,042, slightly higher than the 12,887 cases reported for the week from Jan. 11 to 17.
Case average
Cases averaged 1,863 a day in the recent week compared to 1,841 a day in the previous week.
In its case bulletin issued at 4 p.m. Sunday, the DOH posted 1,949 new infections, pushing the cumulative case count to 513,619.
The largest numbers of cases came from Davao City (99), Quezon City (98), Cavite (74), Baguio City (73) and Leyte (63).
There were 53 additional mortalities, raising the death toll from Covid-19 to 10,242. The case fatality rate remained at 1.99 percent.
The agency also reported 7,729 recoveries under its time-based recovery scheme, which declares coronavirus-positive individuals with no symptoms in at least 14 consecutive days as recoveries.
The 7,729 “mass recovery” on Jan. 24 was nearly 32 percent higher than the 5,868 recoveries reported a week ago on Jan. 17.
The new recoveries brought the total to 475,612 as of Sunday.
A total of 24,619 tests were conducted on Jan. 23, of which 1,065 or 4.3 percent yielded positive results.
Globally, infections edged closer to 99 million. As of 3 p.m. Sunday, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center tracker showed more than 98.75 million cases worldwide, including over 2.12 million deaths.
The Philippines, with 511,679 cases as of Jan. 23, ranked 32nd in terms of number of infections.
The US continued to post the largest number of cases at nearly 25 million, followed by India with 10.65 million, Brazil with 8.8 million, Russia with 3.66 million and UK with 3.62 million. / (KFD, JJL, MVI / SunStar Philippines)