By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) here registered its highest three-digit, single day surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases at 189 yesterday.
According to EOC executive director Em Ang, the figure was based on the real time results released from the molecular laboratory on Sunday night.
Ang said the recent figure is considered an “all time high,” since the start of the pandemic.
The last time that the city logged three-digit cases was in May last year, at 180 cases which was the highest at that time, Ang said.
“Daw gasunod naman ta sa trend sang Manila,” Ang said.
Bacolod was placed under Alert Level 3 from Jan 15 to 31, 2022 because of rising cases and the threat of the Omicron variant.
Ang said that most of the infected were those with travel history, pregnant women, and with comorbidities who are asymptomatic.
But despite this development, Ang noted that hospitalization utilization rate is relatively low at 31 percent.
She said that only one COVID-19 patient was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and only one COVID-19 death was recorded so far this month.
Following this development, Ang said they reopened three quarantine facilities here. “Wala man ta choice para may butangan ta sa ila,” she added.
If these quarantine facilities will be fully utilized, more facilities are ready to open, she added.
Ang said that other COVID-19 patients are qualified to be under home quarantine if they are asymptomatic, have separate bathroom and bedroom, and all household members are fully vaccinated.
Ang said the vaccination program of the city government continues, despite surpassing the 70 percent target of the total population here in the vaccination campaign.
She said they averaged 6,000-8,000 daily in the vaccination drive because of the booster shots.
Meanwhile, Ang said that it is the prerogative of establishments here if they will implement “no vaccine, no entry” policy.
Ang said the city government has no guidelines yet on such move, but she believed that it’s a good mitigation measure to prevent their employees from getting infected of the virus.
“Madulaan man trabaho ila empleyado kung magmasakit, kalawig daan sang isolation period,” she added.
