Cebu City sees decrease in positivity rate, hospital occupancy

Towering skyscrapers in the Cebu Business Park adorn Cebu City’s exciting skyline. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is seeing a further improvement of its Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation with the decrease in the positivity rate and hospital occupancy.

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has reported a decrease of half in the daily positivity rate, which now stands at 6.71 percent since only 57 out of 850 individuals tested proved positive to the COVID-19 on March 30, 2021.

The EOC said this shows a decreasing trend in the number of cases, which used to average more than 100 per day.

The occupancy rate in hospitals also decreased by at least 10 percent, now standing at 36.2 percent for public hospitals, which means that out of the 1,010 COVID-19 designated beds, only 366 are currently occupied.

In private hospitals, the occupancy rate is even lower, now at 28.2 percent, which translates to only 185 occupied beds out of the total 655 COVID-19 designated beds.

The EOC also notes an improvement in Barangay Guadalupe, which still has the most number of new cases daily, but is now recording only two-digit cases per day from the previous three-digit cases.

On March 30, 2021, in particular, Barangay Guadalupe recorded only 93 cases.

In total, the EOC records only 1,356 active cases in the city, which is at least 300 cases lower than the Department of Health’s (DOH) record at 1,694 active cases.

Councilor Joel Garganera said the discrepancy is due to the late reporting of recoveries to the DOH, but the numbers will be harmonized at least once a month.

The councilor said the COVID-19 situation in the city has significantly improved and their target is to lower the active cases even further.

With this, the EOC asks the public’s help to comply with the health protocols. They also encourage health workers and senior citizens to get registered for the vaccination program.

Finally, Garganera appeals to the public to treat contact tracers and extraction teams with respect.

He said their teams have been complaining about negative treatment by the COVID-19 patients or contacts that need to be swabbed or isolated.

“We are not the enemies. We are not here to make your life miserable, we are here to keep you safe and make it easier for you to reintegrate back to the community,” he said.

He urged mutual respect for front liners and patients alike.  /rcg