ILOILO City – Western Visayas is one of the epicenters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections in the country, according to the OCTA Research Group.
Acknowledging the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, Mayor Jerry Treñas said local government units (LGUs) in the region and the different sectors in the community “must work closely together.”
He then reiterated his call for “more vaccines, more hospital beds, more medical personnel and more ventilators and medicines for COVID.”
“(The) DOH (Department of Health) should level up. PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) should start paying the hospitals. We cannot be acting like its business as usual,” Treñas stressed.
OCTA Research fellow Professor Guido David, in a televised public briefing, said Western Visayas joined Davao City and the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus as epicenters of infections.
“It depends on the definition or perspective of the person on what an epicenter is. From our perspective, it (Davao City) is also one of the epicenters now, along with Western Visayas,” said David.
NCR is having an average of 1,000 cases per day while Davao City, as of June 9, has 2,830 active COVID-19 cases which were more than half of Region 6’s total 5,306.
‘LEFT OUT’
In an interview over DZRH AM radio on Sunday, Treñas said it is time for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to take a look at the real COVID-19 situation in the region.
“We feel so left out. Ang feeling namin ay hindi kami kasama, na pinababayaan kami,” Treñas said. “Tumataas ang kaso (ng COVID-19) sa buong region pero ang tulong ng national government parang hindi namin makita.”
“We hope that the national government will come in because there are times that it is the national government who can give us solutions to problems since the resources are concentrated in the national government,” he added.
Treñas also urged the DOH to attend to the lack of medical personnel and ventilators in his city that is preventing hospitals from increasing their bed capacities.
“I also hope that DOH (officials) come to their senses and see the real situation here in Iloilo City and have some urgency naman because otherwise more people will be affected,” Treñas lamented.
The city mayor also hopes that the national government will send more COVID-19 vaccines to the city as they have so far fully vaccinated only around 8,000 out of 450,000 target population.
“Hopefully, makasama rin kami sa priority nila sa vaccine since that is the only way to lower the cases,” Treñas said. “Sabi naman ni (vaccine czar Carlito) Galvez na tutulong na ang national government. Hopefully it will come sooner.”
“We do not have a problem with people hesitant to be vaccinated. People (here) allow themselves to be vaccinated with any brand. Wala naman silang brand preferences,” he added.
As June 12, Western Visayas had 11,246 active cases. Iloilo City topped among provinces and highly urbanized cities with 2,523 followed by Iloilo province with 2,295.
Negros Occidental is also catching up with 2,253 active cases followed by Bacolod City with 1,890; Capiz – 827; Aklan – 763; Antique – 493; and Guimaras – 202.
The region also posted a total of 1,277 COVID deaths.
On Saturday, the region also logged its all-time high 978 confirmed cases in a single day./PN
