Lower COVID testing in WV due to case decline – DOH-6

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) on Monday confirmed that the declining number of cases also depressed the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests.

The region has logged 155,381 positive cases out of 1,239,749 tests conducted by 18 DOH-accredited laboratories as of Nov 5, pending de-duplication.

Western Visayas saw a drastic decline in COVID-19 cases recently, with only 1,401 confirmed within the last two weeks, compared to 3,659 in the past 3-4 weeks and 6,944 in the past 5-6 weeks.

But with the recent downtrend in cases comes a decline in testing according to DOH-WV CHD spokesperson Dr. Daphynie Teorima.

During the weekly Isyung Bakuna online presser on Monday, Teorima said COVID testing via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method would largely depend on contact tracing of confirmed and suspect cases.

She admitted that because of the government’s limited resources, they cannot test beyond those who have been contact-traced and those showing COVID symptoms.

“If the number of persons showing symptoms have lessened, and parallel to that the confirmed number of positive cases, most likely our number of cases for testing will also go down. We cannot just test without basis since our resources in the government are limited,” Teorima said.

LATEST COVID DATA

Region 6 is under Low Risk and Alert Level 2 for COVID, according to DOH-WV CHD data as of Nov. 14.

Based on the most recent COVID cases logged in the region, new cases decreased by 62 percent, with a 2-week average of 1.27 new cases per 100,000 people.

Usage of COVID-dedicated beds and mechanical ventilators also decreased regionwide, most recently at 33.72 percent.

More than half of the region is now at Minimal Risk for COVID (Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo province), while the rest of the region (Negros Occidental, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City) is at Low Risk.

Except for Iloilo City which is considered under Alert Level 1, the rest of the region is under Alert Level 2.

As to the growth rate, Guimaras posted the biggest decrease (-78 percent), followed by Iloilo province (-64 percent), Negros Occidental and Iloilo City (-62 percent each), Capiz (-60 percent), Aklan (-59 percent), and Antique (-33 percent).

As to the 2-week average per 100,000 population, Aklan remains the lowest (0.13), followed by Guimaras (0.50), Antique (0.54), Iloilo province (0.71), Guimaras (0.78), Negros Occidental (1.58), Iloilo City (1.76), and Bacolod City (4.26).

Aklan also remains the lowest in health care utilization (2.94 percent), followed by Antique (15.29 percent), Guimaras (15.52 percent), Capiz (24.64 percent), Iloilo province (32.87 percent), Bacolod City (36.15 percent), Iloilo City (44.77 percent), and Negros Occidental (46.99 percent).

Despite the steady decline of COVID cases and hospitalizations, Teorima warned that cases may still go up and people would have to continue observing minimum public health standards until herd immunity targets have been reached.

“It’s possible that [COVID-19] may rise again if we are not careful. Until we reach our herd immunity, the likelihood that this numbers may increase again is huge. We have to be vigilant in wearing our [protection]. We have to maintain our minimum health standards amid our low positivity rate. It would be reassuring that we have COVID under control,” she said.

As of Nov. 14, Western Visayas’ total COVID tally is 144,272 (6,167 active cases, 134,632, and 3,636).