Bacolod mayor welcomes downgraded alert level

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia welcomed the declaration of the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas that further downgraded the city’s COVID-19 risk status from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1.

In a statement Wednesday, the mayor said the recent development is proof of the city’s effective management of the pandemic.

He further said that “it is a recognition of the timely and innovative interventions of the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force that resulted to the containment of infections and continued decline of attack rate the past weeks.”

To put things in proper perspective, the health department placed Bacolod under Alert Level 1 because the city is now classified as a “minimal risk” area, as explained by Dr. Bea Camille Natalaray of the DOH-Western Visayas Center for Health Development 6.

Dr. Natalaray said the DOH decision was due to the declining attack rate in Bacolod from 2.59 percent to 0.59 percent per 100,000 population. The agency further noted the reduced healthcare system utilization of Bacolod to only 12.46 percent.

“Credit goes to Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, who chairs the city Inter-Agency Task Force; the EOC-Task Force, to the Bacolod City Health Office, the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office and their army of hardworking health frontliners and volunteers who include doctors and nurses serving as vaccinators; the barangay captains, kagawads, barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars, tanods, as well as the business community, the public and private schools, the management of different malls and food chains, who opened their facilities as vaccination center,” Leonardia said.

The mayor also thanked Bacolodnons for their full cooperation to the city government’s call to get vaccinated, especially during the Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 National Vaccination Days, including the extension schedule of the “Bayanihan Bakunahan” on Dec. 2-3, 2021.

He said the city hit the quota given to Bacolod by the DOH.

“After the five-day campaign, Bacolod City gave more than 73,000 jabs. Our sincere appreciation, too, to members of the media, who had been helping us in our information and education campaigns these past months,” he added.

As of December 14, 2021, Bacolod recorded only five new cases of COVID- 19.

The city has logged 23,770 cases with 256 active cases, 22,702 recoveries, and 801 deaths.