THE Department of Health (DOH) 7 has logged 18 coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19)-related deaths since Aug. 1, 2021.
It recorded 17 Covid-19-related deaths in the region last month.
Majority of newly reported deaths came from Cebu Province, which currently has the most number of active cases at 4,245 as of Saturday, Aug. 7.
After two straight days of recording more than 12,000 active cases, the region has now breached the 13,000-mark.
A total of 1,295 of the 4,957 samples tested on Saturday yielded positive results and were added to the number of active cases.
Cebu Province topped the list of new cases with 526 recorded on Saturday, followed by Cebu City (353), Lapu-Lapu City (180), Bohol (106), Mandaue City (96), Negros Oriental (20) and Siquijor (14).
According to the DOH, the country’s Covid-19 statistics are back to the April 2021 level, when the country hit a second peak with an average of more than 10,000 infections a day.
On Sunday, Aug. 8, new infections fell below 10,000 but the number of people who died and those who tested positive swelled to their highest levels in about four months.
In its case bulletin Sunday, the DOH reported 9,671 new infections, fewer than the previous day’s 11,021, as the tests conducted also decreased to 51,296 on Aug. 6 although all laboratories were able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
But there were 287 deaths, highest since the 401 recorded on April 9, and the positivity rate went up to 20.3 percent, highest since the 20.7 percent on April 10.
The 10,623 cases reported on Aug. 6 and the 11,021 on Aug. 7 were the highest since April 17. The new infections on Sunday were the highest since April 18.
The country currently has 77,516 active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities, including three cases that were previously tagged as recoveries. This is the highest number of active cases since April 24.
The additional deaths, which included 149 cases reclassified from recoveries, raised the Covid-19 death toll to 29,122. The case fatality rate increased to 1.76 percent.
There were 8,079 new recoveries, which brought the total to 1,552,278.
Of the active cases as of Aug. 6, 1.0 percent were critical, 1.7 percent were severe, 1.2 percent were moderate, 93.2 percent were mild and 2.8 percent were asymptomatic.
Globally, the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker showed that over 4.28 million had died out of 202.3 million infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr., in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon, appealed to residents to be extra careful against Covid-19.
Gullas said he understands the clamor of the people to “get the economy back on track,” but he also emphasized the need to strike a balance between health and the economy.
“Unlike the previous two weeks, lisod karon kay dali gyud makatakod ang Covid karon. Mas transmissible cya. Mas daghan naigo and kita kaau nato karon sa kadaghan na hospital og Covid (Unlike the previous two weeks, the virus has become more transmissible. It is evident with many people being hospitalized because of Covid),” reads a portion of his post.
He thanked health frontliners for putting their lives in danger to save others.
He said public cooperation is important. The government can set guidelines and implement protocols, but it “cannot be in all places at once,” he added.
The mayor said local police have apprehended 255 curfew violators since the start of the month.
He also reminded the public to wear masks properly.
“It’s a sign that you care for the people around you and it’s a sign that you respect the doctors and nurses in the frontlines of this war against Covid,” Gullas said. (MVI / SunStar Philippines / WBS)