January 11, 2022
CEBU CITY’s active Covid-19 cases have breached the 500 mark after the city returned to recording new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases at the triple-digit level Sunday.
Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the City recorded 111 new cases on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, the second day in a row it reported fresh cases in the three digits.
He said these were the figures as of 9:50 p.m., when three laboratories had yet to submit their test results.
Cebu City had recorded 430 active cases on Sunday, Jan. 9, after the city recorded 145 new cases.
Last Jan. 2, the city had only eight active cases, which means over 500 new cases were recorded in the first 10 days of this year alone.
With the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases this year, and to prepare for a bigger surge, the EOC is now allowing home isolation for those who test positive for Covid-19 who are asymptomatic or suffering only mild systems.
North District Councilor Garganera said houses with rooms and comfort rooms that can be used solely by a Covid-positive patient, and that have no household members with co-morbidities are qualified.
The EOC is now also working with condominium developers and subdivisions to have unit and homeowners who test positive just isolate in their own condo units and homes, Garganera said Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.
“I had a talk already with some of the developers and management of the condos. Receptive ra man sila. Ang naka-apan lang kay naalarma ang ubang unit owner kay basin mokuyanap,” Garganera said. (They were receptive, except that some unit owners were alarmed that the virus might spread.)
He said they were taking these measures since majority of Cebuanos are already vaccinated against Covid-19, which is believed to result in milder cases in the event of breakthrough infections.
As of Jan. 9, some 65.41 percent of Cebu City residents had already received at least a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 52.91 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center.
Amid the rapid rise in cases in the country believed to be fueled by the Omicron variant, the EOC also does not want the ill to flock to hospitals now that barangay isolation centers and temporary treatment and monitoring facilities are still suffering from a power shortage and damage due to Typhoon Odette (Rai).
Typhoon Odette struck Cebu on Dec. 16, 2021, and the Visayan Electric has so far restored power to only 50 percent of its customers in Metro Cebu.
Despite the recent rise in cases, Garganera said hospital admissions remain low and no one has died from the disease this year.
The Cebu City Government will prepare the Cebu City Quarantine Center (CCQC) in the North Reclamation Area and the Noah complex at the South Road Properties to serve as Covid-19 isolation facilities to be run by the Cebu City Health Department and the EOC.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said Typhoon Odette badly damaged the CCQC, so it will have to be rehabilitated. However, they will no longer restore its negative pressure qualities because the Cebu City Medical Center will no longer be running it.
Pandemic high
The Department of Health reported Monday the Philippines’ highest number of new Covid-19 cases logged in a day since the pandemic began in March 2020, with 33,169 fresh infections.
The new cases brought the country’s total caseload to almost three million, or 2,998,530, as of 4 p.m. Monday.
Monday’s tally is also the third consecutive day for the country to see record-breaking numbers, with 28,707 new cases logged on Sunday, January 9, and 26,548 on Saturday, January 8.
The top regions with the highest number of new cases are Metro Manila, with 18,535 infections (56 percent), Calabarzon with 7,443 (23 percent) and Central Luzon with 3,403 (10 percent).
The new cases raised the Philippines’ active Covid-19 cases to 157,526. (MKG, PAC, CTL, LMY, TAP-M)