BACOLOD City – This capital city, which accounts for 31 percent of the cumulative tally of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Western Visayas, has recorded a decline in new infections over the past three to four weeks.
This was the assessment of Melquiades Feliciano, chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)-Visayas.
A retired Army Major General, Feliciano had been helping run the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for almost two months now.
“We can say that [COVID-19] cases [in Bacolod] are going down. Also, the mortalities lowered,” Feliciano said in a recent press conference with Mayor Evelio Leonardia and City Administrator Em Ang.
From the third to fourth week of September, Bacolod was averaging 50 cases per day but between the first and second week of October, cases have gone down to an average of only 25 cases a day.
On Monday night, data from the City Health Office showed 21 new cases – among the lowest data in recent weeks.
Bacolod recorded 4,629 confirmed cases, of which 3,899 or 84.23 percent recovered.
There are still 614 active cases (13.26 percent) while the total number of deaths is 116 (2.51 percent).
Feliciano attributed the decrease in COVID-19 cases to effective interventions and systems being implemented to curb local transmission.
In a related development, 19 of the 61 barangays in this city recorded zero active cases of coronavirus disease 2019 for the past 14 days.
These barangays were 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, and Punta Taytay.
“This is something to celebrate considering the efforts of the city government in containing the pandemic for several months now,” said Leonardia who also chairs the EOC task force.
He encouraged these barangays to maintain their status and challenged other barangays to catch up.
The mayor added that statistical indicators in Bacolod are indeed “very positive.”
“Our deaths decreased. From 40 in August to 64 in September, as of the moment (Oct. 19), it is 15. Meaning, the number has largely dropped,” Leonardia said.
Upon consultation with Feliciano, Leonadia requested the national IATF to de-escalate the status of Bacolod from the current general community quarantine (GCQ) to modified GCQ./PN
