4 Visayas cities very high risk for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Four highly urbanized cities in the Visayas are still considered “very high risk” for COVID-19, according to a member of the OCTA Research Group.

OCTA fellow Guido David said the average daily attack rate (ADAR) or the number of infections per 100,000 people remains “very high” in Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu and Mandaue.

Iloilo recorded the highest ADAR as of Tuesday with 64.06 followed by Cebu with 40.32; Mandaue, 29.99, and Bacolod, 27.26.

The four cities also have high reproduction numbers of over 1.0 and very high positivity rates of more than 20 percent.

In terms of health care utilization, Mandaue logged a high 78 percent. The three other cities are now at moderate levels.

David said Lapu-Lapu, Ormoc and Tacloban are classified as ”high risk” for COVID-19.

He said Lapu-Lapu recorded a very high ADAR of 39.83, but its health care utilization rate was below 50 percent, which is considered low based on the metric used by OCTA.

Ormoc had a moderate ADAR of 9.12 while Tacloban recorded a high 15.62 daily new infections per 100,000 people in the past week.

Positivity rates in the three cities remain very high. Ormoc logged the highest at 75 percent.

Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Ormoc and Tacloban were placed under Alert Level 3 until Feb. 15 due to a surge in COVID cases fueled by the Omicron variant.