DOH-7 chief pathologist sees no reason elevating Lapu alert level
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu—The Department of Health (DOH) should consider several factors before deciding to elevate the alert level of Lapu-Lapu City.
This Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, the chief pathologist of DOH-7, said as she sees no reason in elevating the alert level of the city from level 2 to level 3.
“There is a matrix for it, and the increase in the average daily attack rate, if that is really correct based on the on-the-ground data, there are also other factors that have to be considered. Critical care utilization rate is one. Okay, so it’s not just the average daily attack rate. Third would be the presence or absence of the Delta variant. And number four which is very important would be our vaccination rates,” Loreche, who also serves as a consultant for Lapu-Lapu City, said.
Earlier, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that they saw a positive two-week growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Lapu-Lapu.
She added that the city is now classified as moderate risk for Covid-19. Currently, Lapu-Lapu City is under alert level 2.
But Loreche clarified that in the past days, the daily average new cases for COVID-19 in the city is almost zero.
Based on the case bulletin of DOH-7 for COVID-19 cases, the city has only recorded two new cases of the virus on Tuesday, November 23, 2021. On Monday, November 22, 2021, the city even did not log a new case.
She added that the city has not also recorded a new additional case for Delta variant.
“Based on our samples collected in DOH region seven, there are no Delta variant additional cases in Lapu-Lapu City,” she added.
For the city’s vaccination drive performance against COVID-19, Loreche said that the city has already inoculated around 75 percent for the first dose and 49 percent for fully vaccinated individuals.
“So most likely, that is a statement that we have to check and examine for you know, as I said, there are several factors to be considered before you can even downgrade or upgrade the alert level of a certain LGU,” she said.
She also clarified that the hospital utilization rate that was presented by Vergeire during her press briefing on Monday, November 22, 2021, was reflective of non-COVID hospitals beds.
Based on the data showed by Vergeire, the critical care utilization for Lapu-Lapu City is at 54.35 percent for the COVID-19 beds, 52.94 percent on mechanical ventilators, and 15.38 percent on the regional ICU utilization.
It added that the utilization rate for Mactan Doctors’ Hospital is already at a moderate risk at 64.7 percent but its mechanical ventilators are at 81.82 percent exhausted.
Lapu-Lapu City Hospital is at a critical level at 97.7 percent with 64 COVID-19 beds occupied and nine beds left vacant. Vergeire’s data added that Allegiant Regional Care (ARC) Hospital has no COVID-19 admissions recorded.
“As a matter of fact, our admissions in all our hospitals in One Cebu, not just in Lapu-Lapu, is actually more on non-COVID patients. That’s why there is already a downgrading, downsizing, in the number of beds allocated for COVID,” she explained.
“I don’t know where they get their data, but I believe that the data that we have on the ground, which was validated and verified by our RESU, would be the better data for us to base any eventualities in upgrading or downgrading for alert level,” she added.
/bmjo
READ MORE: Lapu police ready should city be placed under Alert Level 3
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
