ILOILO – Social gatherings in barangays are behind the spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, according to the Provincial Health Office (PHO). How to stop these gatherings is its major headache.
“It is so disappointing,” said Dr. Ma Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon, acting PHO head, referring to funeral wakes, birthday parties and fiestas, among others, in the barangays.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. prohibited these gatherings, she stressed.
In May, PHO recorded 1,887 COVID-19 cases at 59 daily infections on average.
In June, coronavirus cases spiked to 4,446 with 148 daily infections on average.
On the first three days of July, the province recorded 348 total cases – for a daily average of 116 new infections.
“Ano na lang ubrahon namon man?” Quiñon lamented.
She urged barangay officials and tanods to conduct tighter monitoring and submit to the PHO incident reports which in turn would be forwarded to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“Obrahan incident report (which includes) date of mass gathering, time, then describe…If you can have photos (much better),” added Quiñon.
COVID-19 cases in barangays have no signs of going down, “so we need to cooperate with each other,” she said.
As of Saturday (July 3), Iloilo province had 12,797 total confirmed coronavirus cases – 2,974 were active (23 percent); 9,507 recovered (74 percent); and 316 deaths (three percent).
Most COVID-hit age group was 21 to 30 years old (3,043 cases), followed by 31 to 40 years old (2,453), 61 years old and above (1,810), 41 to 50 years old (1,806), 51 to 60 years old (1,737), 11 to 20 years old (1,164), one to 20 years old (720), and less than one year (17).
The local government unit (LGUs) with the highest total confirmed cases were Oton – 1,125, Passi City – 998, Pavia – 811, Santa Barbara – 702, Miag-ao – 567, Guimbal – 466, Pototan – 412, San Joaquin – 404, Sara – 376, and Concepcion – 376.
As to the active cases, Santa Barbara topped the list with 324, Oton – 225, Concepcion – 152, Pototan -147, and Pavia – 144./PN
