January 11, 2022
LESS than two weeks into the new year, coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is back in 53 of Cebu City’s 80 barangays, from just four barangays at the end of 2021.
This, after active cases in the city zoomed to 564 on Monday, Jan. 10, from just four active cases in four barangays last Jan. 1.
Cebu City hospitals are currently treating 375 Covid-19 patients.
Past 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11, however, 197 new cases were added to the tally, bringing the city’s active cases past 700.
Interviewed early Tuesday, Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the city has seen such a surge before and Cebuanos can still stop its acceleration.
“Before, we had 400 cases a day, so cases like this are very normal to EOC. We can weather this as long as we work together to abide by the protocols. And so long as we don’t let our guard down, we can do this!” Garganera said.
Last August, during the third surge of Covid-19 in Cebu, the city recorded 200 to 400 new cases daily.
For three straight days now, Cebu City has recorded new Covid-19 cases at the three-digit level. Last Sunday, Jan. 9, the city recorded 145 new cases, followed by 137 new cases on Monday.
The barangays with the most number of active Covid-19 cases as of Jan. 10 were Barangay Guadalupe with 44 active cases, with 15 of the cases testing positive on Jan. 10; Lahug, 41; Apas, 37; Talamban, 29; Capitol Site, 27; Labangon, 22; Banilad, 22; Kalunasan, 17; Mabolo, 17; Mambaling, 16; Kasambagan, 14; Tisa, 14; Punta Princesa, 13; Camputhaw, 12; Sambag 1, 11; Sambag 2, 11; Pulangbato, Tinago, Pit-os and Bulacao, 10 each.
Other barangays with infections had less than 10 cases each.
Of 114 recent cases investigated, the EOC’s Jan. 11 report revealed that household transmission was the source of infection for 46 cases, while “outside transmission” was responsible for 68 cases.
The sources of infection for outside transmission were broken down into supermarket, 19 cases; workplace, 15 cases; hospital medical frontliner, 10; public market, 9; strolling, 5; delivery services, 5; gathering, 2; PDL, 1; public transport, 1 and restaurant, 1.
Despite the rise in cases, Garganera said hospital admission of Covid-19 patients remained low.
Based on EOC data, 255 of 410 beds allocated for Covid-19 cases in public hospitals are occupied, for a 62 percent occupancy.
In the city’s private hospitals, 120 of 800 Covid beds are occupied for a 15 percent occupancy.
Garganera said no Covid case has died in the first 11 days of 2022.
Past 3 million
On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that the country’s Covid-19 caseload had surpassed three million with the addition of 28,007 new infections for the day that brought the total to 3,026,473 as of 4 p.m.
The DOH said 181,016 were active cases, with 5,521 asymptomatic, 170,873 mild, 2,863 moderate, 1,464 severe and 295 critical.
The National Capital Region (NCR) had the highest number of new cases at 15,256, followed by Calabarzon with 5,861 cases, and Central Luzon with 3,064 cases.
The death toll climbed to 52,511 with 219 new mortalities.
The country’s positivity rate was 44.5 percent, based on the 58,409 samples tested on Jan. 9.
The DOH also said 41 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the country have been utilized, while utilization rate in NCR stood at 54 percent. For isolation beds, the country has a 44 percent utilization rate and 60 percent for NCR. (CTL, LMY / SunStar Philippines)