CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City’s active cases slightly went down to 407 yesterday after experiencing the highest number of cases in more than two weeks last Saturday.
According to the data from the Emergency Operations Center, cases went down after posting 20 more recoveries and only 28 new ones on May 30.
Positivity rate -- at only 3.17% of the 884 tested -- was also much lower than last Saturday’s.
Data further showed that barangays without transmission remained at 23 while 57 others still have active cases.
Critical care utilization rate also lowered a bit to 15.1 % or only 139 occupied in all COVID-19 allocated beds in public and private hospitals.
In DOH-7’s case bulletin on May 30, Cebu City still had 536 active cases with some of its recoveries still up for validation.
Active cases in the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue have remained below 200 with Lapu-Lapu having 178 and Mandaue with 176. Cebu Province had 479 active cases.
Masterlist
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary and IATF co-chair Karlo Nograles is urging local government units to tie up with the private sector in encouraging the public to have themselves masterlisted in the government’s vaccination rollout.
Nograles, who was in Cebu for the PDP-Laban National Council Meeting yesterday, said once masterlisted, the public should also have themselves actually vaccinated when it’s already their turn.
Nograles reminded mayors who are members of their party of their “great role” in the success of the vaccination program as he allayed fears that the country will be running out of vaccines as every month starting June, July and August, “we have new arrival of vaccines by the government and the private sector.”
He further urged the public not to choose any specific brand of vaccines as all these vaccines are approved by the country’s Food and Drugs Administration.
Nograles said that these vaccines are safe for use.
DOH data as of May 30, 2021 showed that some 101,840 have been inoculated with the first COVID-19 vaccine dose from the total 131,781 healthcare workers masterlisted in Central Visayas. Some 59,736 healthcare workers have been vaccinated with both first and second doses.
Data also showed that 60,141 senior citizens and 8,808 senior citizens were vaccinated for the first dose and second dose, respectively, out of the 549,444 eligible population for this priority group in Central Visayas.
Data further added that Central Visayas has 120,566 persons with comorbidities eligible for the vaccine, at least as of May 30, 2021.
Of the said figure, 28,708 and 2,025 were already inoculated with the first and second dose, respectively.
Project Balik Buhay data, meanwhile, showed that a total of 13,149 and 3,053 individuals belonging under the A1, A2 and A3 priority groups have been inoculated for the first dose and second dose, respectively as of May 30, 2021.
The PPB vaccination initiative is part of the national government vaccination program for the employed/corporate sector in Cebu.
Security
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is set to deploy more than 50,000 police and fire personnel nationwide as support and security to the national vaccine rollout that will now include the A4 category starting this month.
Of this number, 35,415 policemen and women of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will provide security during the transport of vaccines nationwide while 13,840 PNP personnel will be tasked with securing various vaccination areas in the country.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), for its part, is mobilizing 2,390 fire personnel and 356 emergency medical service units (EMS) in 1,150 identified warehouse or cold storage and vaccination sites nationwide. It has also prepositioned 733 fire trucks and 59 ambulances. — JMD (FREEMAN)