COVID CASES DOWN IN LAST 2 WEEKS
While coronavirus infections in Cebu City has been declining in the last 2 weeks, the Department of Health logs 11,101 additional cases, raising number of active cases in the country to 203,710, the highest since the start of the pandemic
THE number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in Cebu City has gone down in the last two weeks.
According to City Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the decrease of Covid-19 cases during this period was the reason fewer recoveries were recorded in the last three days.
Based on the data of the Department of Health (DOH) 7, the city logged only 17 recoveries in the last three days, or 12 on April 14, four on April 15 and one on April 16.
The DOH 7 data showed that Cebu City recorded 893 Covid-19 cases from April 3 to April 16.
Since March, Covid-19 cases have started to decline with the city logging daily cases in the double digits unlike in the months of January and February when it logged daily cases in the triple digits.
“So far, so good. We’re good,” said Garganera on Saturday, April 17.
According to the EOC’s data, Cebu City has 785 active cases as of April 16.
Its total number of cases has reached 22,646 with 21,030 recoveries and 831 mortalities.
It has a positivity rate of 9.61 percent out of the 235,671 individuals tested since last year.
All the city’s 80 barangays in Cebu City have recorded coronavirus cases, but 17 have not reported any case in the last 10 days, while 63 have active transmission.
Barangay Guadalupe has recorded the most Covid-19 cases in the last 10 days with 57; followed by Lahug with 50 cases; Tisa, 38; Apas, 33; and Punta Princesa, 32.
The critical care occupancy rate in 15 hospitals in the city is only 27 percent of the 938 total beds dedicated for Covid-19 patients.
Meanwhile, the DOH reported 11,101 additional coronavirus infections, raising the number of active cases in the country to 203,710, the highest since the pandemic started.
The new cases also brought the total case count to 926,052.
There were 72 additional mortalities, the lowest in nine days. The death toll from Covid-19 increased to 15,810. The case fatality rate decreased to 1.71 percent.
There were 799 new recoveries, bringing the total to 706,532.
The daily positivity rate was 17.7 percent out of 43,574 tested for the virus as of noon of April 16.
Vaccine rollout
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases approved Priority Group A4 of the national deployment and vaccination plan to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a resolution approved on Thursday, April 15, the frontline workers in the following sectors are included in Group A4, in order:
Commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics;
Public and private wet and dry market vendors, groceries, supermarkets and delivery services;
Manufacturing for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products;
Food retail, including food service delivery;
Private and government financial services;
Hotels and accommodation establishments;
Priests, rabbis, imams and other religious leaders;
Security personnel assigned in offices, agencies and organizations identified in the list of priority industries/sectors;
Private and government news media;
Customer-facing personnel of telecoms, cable and internet service providers, electricity distribution and water distribution utilities;
Basic education and higher education institutions and agencies;
Overseas Filipino workers, including those scheduled for deployment within two months;
Law/justice, security, and social protection sectors;
Government transport system, quarantine inspection, worker safety inspection and other Covid-19 response activities;
Tax collection, assessment of businesses for incentives, election, national ID and data collection;
Diplomatic community and consular operations of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA); and
Department of Public Works and Highways personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects.
The IATF also approved the continuation of the training of the national athletes at the Olympic training bubble in Calamba, Laguna.
The suspension of foreign arrivals is also extended until April 30, while foreign nationals with valid entry exemption documents issued by the DFA prior to March 22 will be allowed entry to the Philippines.
The IATF also approved the extension of the risk-level classification of Quirino Province under modified enhanced community quarantine until April 30, 2021.
Under the deployment plan’s prioritization framework, Group A4 will be vaccinated after the medical frontliners (A1), senior citizens (A2) and persons with comorbidities (A3).
Kalookan Bishop Pablo David, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) vice president, welcomed the inclusion of priests and other religious leaders in Group A4.
“That is important because, while we can still get infected, at least the severity would not be as fatal if one is vaccinated,” David said.
David is among bishops and priests who have received the vaccine as senior citizens.
Others are Pasig Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara, Baguio Bishop Victor Bendico, Jaro Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo and Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos.
The DOH earlier announced the simultaneous vaccination of Groups A1, A2 and A3, although only a few of the nearly 3,000 vaccination sites across the country have started inoculations of A2 and A3 due to lack of vaccines.
The Philippines has received a total of 3,025,600 vaccine doses as of April 11, consisting of 2.5 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and 535,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Of the total, 93 percent or 2.8 million doses have been distributed to the different vaccination sites as of April 13, the DOH said.
Vaccines have been administered to 1,093,651 individuals. Of this number, 162,065 have also received their second dose.
A total of 1,255,716 doses have been administered as of April 13. About 38 percent, or 479,474, were administered in the National Capital Region, where hospitals are reeling from a surge in Covid-19 cases.