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CEBU CITY, Philippines – In a span of one week, Cebu City logged less than 200 new cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7), compiled by CDN Digital, showed that from August 2 to August 8, the city recorded only 153 additional COVID-19 cases.
Cebu City also recorded 1,308 recoveries during the same period which is around 88 percent more than its new infections. The city’s total recovery is now at 6,861.
This is the first time in the last three months that the city logged a record low in new cases, the DOH report showed.
With the rise in its recoveries, its active cases of the infection that is caused by SARS-CoV-2 has also dropped to less than 2, 000. As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 8, DOH – 7 documented a total of 9, 198 cases reported in the last four months.
However, the city’s COVID-related deaths continue to increase.
From August 2 to August 8, health officials reported a total of 83 new coronavirus mortalities with whopping 40 new deaths reported on August 8.
With COVID deaths now totaling to 603, the city’s case-fatality rate also increased to 6.56 percent.
But DOH- 7 clarified that not all deaths reported happened in a single day. Recording of COVID deaths is made as soon as the death certificate and other requirements are made available.
“The additional deaths in the report is not due to an overnight spike in deaths but due to more accurate data collection and validation efforts. Not all of these deaths occurred today but occurred more than a week ago,” DOH – 7 said.
READ: Cebu City downgraded to GCQ
The downward trend in the city COVID-19 cases led to the implementation of a more relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ) status here starting on August 1.
Officials of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) in the Visayas said that the city’s quarantine status may be downgraded further to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) if cases of the infection will continue its decline. / dcb