CEBU, Philippines — Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Ahong Chan is puzzled where the Department of Health (DOH) got its data on the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
The mayor said the city’s daily fresh cases are “so low,” even expecting its alert level to be lowered further, not escalated.
Chan made the statement after DOH said might place the city under Alert Level 3 after November 30 owing to a positive two-week growth rate. DOH also classified the city as moderate risk for COVID-19.
Lapu-Lapu, along with other areas in Cebu, is under Alert Level 2 until November 30, 2021.
Chan said DOH’s metrics were “very impossible” as the city’s cases remain very low.
“That is very impossible. Our cases are very low. We don’t have any cases, our cases is only one, two..Nganong muabot mig level 3?” said Chan.
Based on DOH-7’s case bulletin on November 23, Lapu-Lapu only has 44 active cases, including two fresh cases.
Except for November 10 when the city had 11 additional new cases, but most of the days it registered only a single case or two. On November 22, it logged zero case.
During DOH briefing last Monday, its spokesperson, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Lapu-Lapu City may be escalated to alert level 3 from under alert level 2 after posting a positive two-week growth rate in COVID“-19 infections.
“Metrics for Lapu-Lapu may require escalation from alert level 2 to alert level 3,” Vergeire said.
Under the government’s alert level classification scheme, the higher the level, the stricter the restrictions are.
Vergeire said the same metrics showed that the moving seven-day growth rate for Lapu-Lapu (November 8-14 versus November 15-21) was at -32 percent, while its moving average daily attack rate for November 15-21 was at 1.04.
However, its two-week growth rate (Oct. 25-Nov. 7 versus Nov. 8-21) increased to 27.69 percent and its moving average daily attack rate stood at 1.30 for moderate risk classification.
Lapu-Lapu City’s critical care utilization, the measure of hospital bed occupancy, is at 54.35% for the COVID-19 beds, 52.94% on mechanical ventilators, and 15.38% on the regional ICU utilization.
“Asa man ng critical level? Ipa black and white nila…Lisod kaayo unsay among i-present nila kung hearsay lang atoa,” said Chan while saying there are not much patients in their hospitals.
Chan is puzzled where DOH got its data from as he was even anticipating to be placed under alert level 1.
“Asa man na nila gikuha ang ilang result? Nag tan aw man gani ta nga mas muobos pa atong level kay ang atong kaso pirting ubusa. Wako kasabot…maong maglisod gyud kog tubag ana,” he said.
Chan said the city has yet to receive a formal communication from DOH Central Office.
“Wala man pud mi nadawat from them or anything, so di pud mi ka-appeal without us receiving anything official from DOH. Maong lisod kaayo i-tubag ani,” said Chan.
DOH-VII’s chief pathologist, who also became Lapu-Lapu’s consultant, Dr. Mary Jean Loreche also felt sad and disheartened with such development.
Loreche said everything has to be explained or else, it will just cause panic and fear.
“The number of cases is down. There are no Delta variants. Hospitals have downsized their bed allocation for COVID as there are very few COVID patients. TTMFs and isolation facilities have no more admission. Vaccination rate is high,” said Loreche. — Decemay Padilla, KQD (FREEMAN)