Eastern Visayas sustains high Covid-19 recovery rate
COVID-19

Eastern Visayas sustains high Covid-19 recovery rate

May 12, 2021, 8:08 AM
Joyce Kahano-Alpino

Joyce Kahano-Alpino

Writer

Vaccinations in Eastern Visayas are still being encouraged and the public should take advantage of the accessible vaccines provided by the government which, at present, are mostly for health workers and senior citizens.

GOOD news for the fight against Covid-19 in Eastern Visayas: the region is now placed under a low-risk category, with an infection rate of one per 100,000 population.

What’s more, the region’s recovery rate has risen to 96.07 percent after 38 more survivors upped the total to 17,958.

The total recoveries are from the 18,704 confirmed cases since March 2020, the Department of Health (DOH) – Region 8 office said.

As of May 11, 2021, the region still has 459 active cases while 287 patients have died of complications, mostly senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.

However, the health department said residents shouldn’t be complacent as it had noticed a clustering of cases in some areas in the past two weeks.

In the latest case bulletin, there were 51 new infections -- 11 in Leyte, six in Tacloban City, three in Ormoc City, three in Southern Leyte, 13 in Northern Samar, 12 in Samar, and three in Biliran province.

“Even with the high recovery rate in the region, we, in the DOH continue to ask the public to follow basic health protocols to avoid a possible surge of cases in the future,” DOH regional information officer Jelyn Malibago said in a statement.

Vaccination drive

The DOH also urged the public to support the country's vaccination program against Covid-19, which has been rolled out for health workers and senior citizens in the region.

As of May 7, a total of 76,133 doses of vaccines have been administered to priority groups in Eastern Visayas.

Meanwhile, the region is still free of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) variant of concern as authorities await the results of 90 samples sent to the Philippine Genome Center, the Department of Health (DOH) regional office here said.

In a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Roderick Boyd Cerro, DOH Region 8 surveillance nurse, said they have not detected any presence of Covid-19 variant of concern despite the recent surge of cases in some parts of the region.

To prevent the further increase of cases, Cerro calls on residents in the region to observe and follow minimum health protocols such as physical distancing, proper wearing of face masks and face shields, sanitizing or handwashing, and avoid going to crowded places or gathering. (JKA/With report from PNA)

Tags: #OpinYon8, #Covid19, #DepartmentOfHealth, #lowriskcategory


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