W. Visayas adds 175 new COVID cases in weekend

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The renewed surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Western Visayas continued in July’s first weekend, with 175 new cases added to the tally on Friday and Saturday.

The new logs according to the Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) include 93 cases on Friday, July 1, and 82 cases on Saturday, July 2, with all cases being local transmission.

Iloilo City confirmed the most number of cases with a total of 80 – 52 on Friday and 28 on Saturday.

As to the cases on Friday, Iloilo province is second (21), followed by Antique (7), Negros Occidental (6), Bacolod City (4), Aklan (2), and Capiz (1).

Iloilo province also had the second-highest number of cases on Saturday (22), followed by Antique (13), Bacolod City (8), Aklan (5), Negros Occidental (4), and Capiz (1).

Guimaras did not log any new COVID cases within these two days.

In addition to the DOH-WV CHD’s numbers, the Iloilo City government reported 27 new COVID cases for July 2 on Sunday, July 3, but these have yet to be added to the regional office’s log.

The new city data include 6 index cases and 21 cases with identified local transmission.

The DOH-WV CHD’s July 2 bulletin indicated that 184,970 COVID cases were logged in Region 6 (1,143 active cases, 177,720 recoveries, and 5,996 deaths).

Most of the active cases are mild (47.16 percent), with asymptomatic cases being close behind (43.13 percent), and the rest being moderate (5.16 percent), severe (4.37 percent), or critical (0.17 percent).

As to the region’s healthcare capacity, many facilities remain available, including Intensive Care Unit beds (77 percent), Isolation beds (70 percent), COVID Ward beds (70 percent), and mechanical ventilators (90 percent).