CEBU, Philippines — Central Visayas logged 423 cases of COVID-19 involving children ages 0 to 18, indicating that the young ones are vulnerable to and capable of spreading the coronavirus.
“If you look at January 2021, the numbers are already high,” said Loreche, referring to the number of infected children.
She lamented the observation that children are being allowed to run around without facemasks and not following the stay-at-home protocol.
Loreche added that if these children are asymptomatic, they can spread the virus to their families.
Data showed across Central Visayas, there were 2,280 kids ages 0 to 18 who were infected with the virus in 2020.
Also last year, 10,080 young adults ages 19 to 35 were infected in the region. Middle age adults ages 36 to 55 contributed 7,663 cases while older adults ages 56 and above, 4,958 cases.
In January this year, a total of 1,870 young adults, 1,295 middle age adults, and 753 older adults were infected.
Why the rise?
Meanwhile, Loreche said the rising cases in Cebu may no longer be attributed to the post-holiday activities but to the possibility that the UK COVID-19 variant is already here in Cebu.
“It’s possible but no confirmation yet,” she said.
Another reason for the increase, she said, is that people grew tired of the health and safety protocols, which resulted to complacency.
Also contributing to the high numbers is the “efficient contact tracing” which resulted to more people being traced and tested.
Counter-measures
In response to the spike in cases, DOH-7 said it will conduct bio-surveillance here, hoping to detect any presence of the COVID variant in the region.
“We have requested Manila that we be allowed to send as (many) samples (to the Philippine Genomic Center) as we can because we want to target the population na napapansin natin ngayon,” said Loreche.
Also noticed recently is what the DOH-7 described as “clustering of cases.”
“Nung araw, isa lang ang nagpa-positive. Ngayon buong pamilya na ang nagpa-positive and it is happening and a reality here,” said Loreche.
“So naiisip nating talagang mabilis kumalat si virus…so most probably, there is a mutation already, that is why we (may) have a variant,” she added.
DOH-7 will also check whether those who got COVID-19 before and tested positive for the virus again – called reinfection – could have contracted the new variant.
The agency said that with the genomic sequencing, it can now look into more mitigating measures to contain the virus. — Caecent N. Magsumbol, JMD (FREEMAN)