Active cases in Cebu City breach 6,000-mark

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City’s COVID-19 positivity rate has reached its highest since the start of the pandemic, while the city has now breached the 6,000-mark in total active cases.

Out of the 1,593 test results on January 21, 902 turned out positive for COVID-19, which converts to a positivity rate of 56.2%. This is the highest so far since the start of the detection of COVID-19 in the city in 2020.

The majority of the newly added positive cases are under the 21 to 40 age bracket, followed by 368 in the 21-30, and 228 in the 31-40, and 97 in the 41-50.

The younger age groups also have additional cases with 27 in the 10-under class and 32 in the 11 to 20 group while 66 others belong to the 51-60 group, 44 in the 61-70, 19 in the 71-80, 16 in the 81-90 and five in the 91-100 age group.

Total active cases in the city are now at 6,292, also the highest total active cases since the start of the pandemic.

Active cases are spread in 77 barangays. Over 2,000 of the active cases are in home isolation, 187 in hospitals, 137 in BICs, 360 in hotels, 290 in other isolation facilities while 955 are still pending isolation and the rest are still being traced.

“Pinakataas na karon atong positivity rate at 56.62%. Kinahanglan magtibangay ta nga mahinay man lang ang pagsaka aron dili intawn ma-paralyze ang operation sa atong nga vital nga mga institution o establishments sama sa hospital, bangko, supermarkets, etc.,” said EOC deputy chief implementer and city councilor Joel Garganera.

The death toll has also gone up to 19 with the City’s Emergency Operations Center reporting additional six deaths — four seniors, one in his/her 30s, and another one in his/her 50s.

“Of today’s (yesterday’s) six deaths, four are elderly, and five are unvaccinated and no information yet on the status (of vaccination of the other death),” added Garganera.

Amid the sad news is a bit of good news as 150 of the patients have already been cleared as recovered yesterday.

Garganera appealed for everyone to also take responsibility for their actions.

“Dili ni madala sa gobyerno, sa EOC, sa PNP o sa barangay lang. This is a shared responsibilities, kitang tanan adunay kalabutan sa pagsaka o pag-ubos sa kaso sa Covid. Og magkahiusa ta,  magtinabangay ta, walay imposible. Kaya nato ni. Sunod sa AAA, Amping Apilan ug  Ampo,” he said.

Meanwhile, Central Visayas is now one of the five regions with the most number of new cases in the past 14 days with 10,293 based on the Department of Health’s  COVID-19 tracker.

The National Capital Region still has the highest number of new cases with 139,450, followed by Calabarzon with 77,897, then Central Luzon with 36,055, and Western Visayas with 11,494.

In DOH-7 case bulletin on January 21, the entire Central Visayas region currently has 13,383 active cases.

Cebu Province trails Cebu City with the most number of active cases at 3,191, followed by Lapu-Lapu City with 1,346, then Mandaue with 1,214.

Bohol Province, for its part, now has 771 while Negros Oriental has 739, and Siquijor with 13.

Last Thursday, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has also placed Siquijor already in alert level 3, joining the rest of the LGUs under Region 7 in that status for the rest of this month. — KQD (FREEMAN)