ORMOC CITY – This city, as of June 13, Saturday, now has the most number of active cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Region 8 with 38 patients.
The numbers increased following the release of test results from the Eastern Visayas Regional COVID Testing Center (EVRCTC) wherein 68 came out positive, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the region to 200.
A majority of the new cases are Locally Stranded Individuals (LSI) and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) brought home by the government’s Hatid Probinsiya/Balik Probinsiya program.
The DOH-Eastern Visayas has also declared three LGUs in Leyte as already having local transmission – Tacloban City and the towns of La Paz and Hilongos. This, after their contact tracing showed that the three LGUs had new cases with no travel history.
The new cases also involved health workers. The recent case in Tacloban City is a health worker assigned to La Paz town, which in turn has nine new cases that involved health workers and residents, including their ambulance driver and the caretaker of the pension house where the quarantined guests stayed.
In Ormoc, one health worker working in the Ormoc City Ligtas Covid Center was also found positive.
The 68 new positive cases for COVID-19 are from Leyte (1 – Tabon-Tabon; 2 – Pastrana; 9 – La Paz; 7 – Bato; 1 – Abuyog; 1 – Baybay City; 1 – Palo; and 1 – Tanauan); Eastern Samar (1 – Mercedes); Samar (9 – Catbalogan and 1 – San Sebastian); Southern Leyte (8 – Libagon); Tacloban City (1); and Ormoc City (30).
Prior to this update, however, it was the city of Baybay that had the most number of active cases of COVID-19 in Eastern Visayas with 20 patients following the release of test results by the EVRCTC on Thursday night, June 11.
All are, accordingly, not locally-transmitted.
DOH regional director Dr. Minerva Molon, in a press statement, said that “at this stage of localized transmission, we should intensify contact tracing.” She also admonished health workers to be vigilant. “Again, I am reminding everyone to practice personal protective measures. You may be the key to stopping the transmission but it could also be you who can spread and accelerate this transmission if you do not adhere to the standard measures. This is not the time to be complacent. Always consider yourself a carrier and those people around you,” she said. On the Ormoc front, city health doctor Dr. Edmund Kierulf said that all the new positive cases are in Ormoc’s quarantine facilities, including the infected health worker.
By Mary Ann Reusora