An air-conditioned medical tent from the Philippine Red Cross was delivered to Cebu City on Sunday, August 15, 2021, to help address issues arising from the continued increase of COVID-19 cases here. | Photos from Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) said that mortalities from COVID-19 have been on the decline for the past weeks now.
Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC said that the COVID-19 deaths reported per day is now five or below.
The total deaths recorded for September 2021 as of September 24 is only 88, far from the reported deaths in August 2021, which reached 288.
“Having 5 and below-average newly reported deaths per day has already reached a week. We have seen improvements in the numbers of our mortalities. This is in parallel with the continuous decline of daily active cases that we are experiencing at the moment,” said Garganera.
The EOC has already felt the improvement of the COVID-19 situation in the city starting with the recent reduction of the hospital occupancy rate, which is now at 47.4 percent.
Only one more hospital in the city has an occupancy of more than 50 percent, but only because it has fewer COVID-19 dedicated beds.
“Secondly, our daily tested individuals are more or less the same in numbers during the recent surge yet our daily positivity rate remains less than 10%. Moreover, the number of extraction runs to hospitals has decreased,” said Garganera.
Currently, the daily positivity rate is at 7.29 percent, relatively lower from August, but still above the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic threshold of 5 percent.
Still, the active cases in the city has reduced further to 1,017 based on EOC data.
Garganera appeals to the public to maintain health protocols and get vaccinated as their rough data shows vaccinated individuals are protected from the severe symptoms of the virus.
A majority of the COVID-19 deaths in the city are also attributed to unvaccinated patients. Only a few vaccinated individuals die with the virus, but often the deaths were caused by pre-existing illness.
“In this COVID pandemic, Cebu City data shows that the benefits of being vaccinated outweighs the risk of COVID. The number of mortalities recorded and validated in Cebu City shows data that can never get any more obvious. Majority of people dying have not receive any kind of COVID vaccines.”
“People who choose not to vaccinate often do so to avoid risk, but choosing not to vaccinate is the riskier choice. The risks of natural infection outweigh the risks of immunization for every recommended vaccine,” said the councilor.
The EOC encourages the public to register and get vaccinated as soon as they get a schedule. The public is discouraged from choosing a brand especially if they have no plans in the near future to travel abroad. /rcg
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