ILOILO City – Cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Western Visayas surged to 5,140, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.
Some 2,000 new cases were recorded in the past two weeks.
But with 2,616 cases having recovered and 83 deaths, the region’s active COVID-19 cases are actually at 2,397.
DOH recorded 157 new cases yesterday – 149 local, one authorized person outside of residence, four repatriated overseas Filipinos, and three locally stranded individuals.
The new cases were from Aklan (one), Capiz (two), Bacolod City (59), Negros Occidental (28), Iloilo province (18), Iloilo City (47), and Guimaras (two).
DOH also said that of these new cases, 126 were asymptomatic, 20 were manifesting influenza-like illness and 11 had severe acute respiratory infection.
It also recorded 130 new recovered patients yesterday, three other COVID-19 patients died – a 63-year-old male from Molo, Iloilo City (Aug. 23), a 56-year-old male from San Enrique, Iloilo (Aug. 28) and a 53-year-old male from Arevalo, Iloilo City (Aug. 23).
COVID TESTING
A total of 88,966 persons or 1.12 percent of Western Visayas’ population have so far been subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for possible COVID-19 infection.
The target is two percent of the region’s population by Dec. 31, 2020, said Dr. Glen Alonsabe, epidemiologist of DOH-6.
“We still have time to catch up,” said Alonsabe.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has long been urging countries to ramp up their testing programs as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic.
At 29,925, Iloilo City has the most number of individuals tested, followed by Iloilo province (25,063), Negros Occidental (13,735), Bacolod City (12,485), Capiz (4,571), Aklan (1,156), and Antique (1, 020).
Alonsabe said Region 6 was recording an average of 110 COVID-19 cases daily last month from 23 new daily cases in July due to intensified testing and contact tracing.
“This is the result of our aggressive testing and contact tracing especially in areas where there is clustering of cases,” said Alonsabe.
The daily new cases may further increase, he said, pointing out the recent mass testing in Bacolod City and parts of Negros Occidental, the results of which are yet to be released.
According to Alonsabe, “84 percent” of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region were asymptomatic, one of the highest in the country.
“We have a simple message to all countries – test, test, test,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, calling the pandemic “the defining global health crisis of our time.”
All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, he said, as “they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded.”
Without testing, cases cannot be isolated and the chain of infection will not be broken, explained Adhanom.
The strategy to contain the disease – identifying people with infections and rapidly isolating them – is still the best approach, he stressed, and had shown positive effects in China, South Korea and Singapore.
COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus. This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough.
Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell.
Most people (about 80 percent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment, according to the World Health Organization.
Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness.
People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales.
These droplets also land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth./PN
