In Cebu City and Central Visayas: COVID-19 slowing down — DOH

CEBU, Philippines — Transmission of the COVID-19 virus in Cebu City and the rest of Central Visayas has slowed down but the Department of Health (DOH) warned this should not be a reason to be complacent.

“Apparently, we are slowing rising to the challenge and we hope will able to keep it that way… we should not be complacent just like the other countries that have another surge of cases. Let us be mindful. We are not yet out of the woods,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson on COVID-19 of DOH-7’s Center for Health Development.

As far as Cebu City is concerned, Loreche attributes the control of the virus’ spread to massive contact tracing, testing, and isolation, as well as people observing minimum health standards.

These health standards include wearing of masks and face shields; regular washing of hands; physical distancing, especially in public; and boosting of immune system.

Loreche said the granular lockdowns also helped, especially that more businesses are reopening during general community quarantine.

Cebu City returned to GCQ after almost two months of being placed back under the stricter enhanced community quarantine following a surge of COVID-19 cases in June. At that time, the city was tagged as the new epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines.

Since returning to GCQ, Cebu City recorded its lowest number of new cases on August 6 with only 13.

The challenge now is to sustain the progress, Loreche said, citing the situation in Cebu Province when more cases were recorded when it decided to reopen its tourism industry.

Loreche said maintaining the GCQ status for Metro Cebu – Cebu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, Lapu-Lapu City, Minglanilla, and Consolacion – for the rest of August is a good move so that preventive measures would still be in place even as more industries reopen and more people go out to return to work.

The other day, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) - 7 said it saw an “overwhelming compliance” in Cebu to the order of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) for passengers of public utility vehicles to wear a mask and a face shield.

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) - 7 also said it noted a 90 percent compliance in Cebu on the day the order took effect on August 15, Saturday.

In Central Visayas as a whole, the seven-day growth rate is now less than one percent. As such, it now takes 90 days for active cases to double. The longer the time frame, the lower the curve and the slower the growth.

Based on DOH data on August 15, Central Visayas only has 14.1 percent positive rate. This is based on total number of tests and positive cases multiplied by a hundred.

Hospitals, too, are no longer overwhelmed as critical care utilization rate is now less than 30 percent, Loreche said.

One of the factors utilization rate has gone down is awareness on the part of the public as people now know when and which hospitals to go to, and that they have the option to go to isolation centers if they experience only mild symptoms.

The commitment of hospitals, including private hospitals, is also a major factor, Loreche said.

While the number of deaths in Central Visayas remains high – 1,040 of the 2,665 total deaths in the country, Loreche clarified these are not all new numbers as there are hospitals that are reporting deaths from as far back as April 2020. — JMO  (FREEMAN)