BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas classified this city and the province of Negros Occidental as “low risk” for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Negros Occidental’s average daily attack rate (ADAR) was at 1.6 per 100,000 population, data (as of Aug. 20) from DOH showed. This was lower compared to the 1.76 ADAR logged in July 21 to Aug. 3.
Also, the province was still under Alert Level 1 as its COVID-related hospitalization rate remained low.
Bacolod City, meanwhile, recorded a drop in ADAR from 6.8 two weeks ago to 5.99 this week.
It remained under Alert Level 2, with its healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) moderate and its number of coronavirus cases decreasing.
However, on Monday Bacolod recorded two new cases of the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus causing COVID-19, bringing its total Delta cases to six.
The two new cases were a six-month-old boy from Barangay Bata and a 45-year-old male from Barangay Villamonte, confirmed City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of Emergency Operations Center.
Both patients have already completed their isolation.
According to Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, Alert Level 2 is hoisted in areas where case transmission is low and decreasing, low HCUR but with presence of the Delta variant; or the case count is low but increasing; or the case count is low and decreasing but HCUR is increasing.
Areas under Alert Level 1, meanwhile, are those with low and decreasing case transmission, low HCUR and no reported case of the Delta variant.
An area to be classified under this level must fulfill all the following conditions: “minimal” to “low” risk, with negative growth rate; COVID-19 bed utilization and ICU utilization must be less than 50 percent; and no local case of Delta variant detected.
As of Aug. 23, Negros Occidental continued to see a drop in COVID-19 cases with 645 active cases, based on the data from the Provincial Incident Management Team.
Bacolod, meanwhile, had a small fluctuation in its active case with 919 after it recorded 85 new cases on Monday./PN
