COVID-19 claims 65 lives in Cebu City in January alone

FILE PHOTO: A computer image created by Nexu Science Communication together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus which is the type of virus linked to COVID-19. NEXU Science Communication/via REUTERS

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City recorded a total of 65 COVID-19 deaths for January 2022.

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) reported at least six additional deaths for the last day of January 2022, raising the concern that the surge is already costing lives.

Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, notes that although the deaths are significantly lower than during the Delta-driven surge in August 2021, the mortalities for January are relatively higher than in its preceding months.

The councilor said that one death is still one death too many and he urged the public to remain vigilant.

Yet the good news is that the cases are slowly dropping.

Garganera said that it’s too early to tell that the city has peaked the Omicron-driven surge, but he is hopeful that the cases will continue to drop.

In fact, the active cases in the city have reduced to 6,985 as compared to the consistently over 7,000 active cases in the last week of January.

The drop is attributed to the recoveries reported today that have exceeded the new cases. Only 166 new cases were reported for January 31, 2022, while 481 recovered from the illness.

“Today is the first day nga ang total positive case ni start na og decrease as well. Gahapon 7,429 baya atong active cases karon kay 6,985 na, ug daghan gani ang recovery kaysa fresh case this is a good sign.”

“Again too early to tell, this first 2 weeks of February will determine if we can deescalate to a much lower alert level. Again let us hold our fort by seriously complying with the health protocols, the Mayor’s EO (executive order), and most especially vaccination,” said the councilor.

He also notes that the hospitals are doing well with the care utilization rate still at 59 percent for all private and public hospitals in the city.

Many hospitals are still affected by their medical workers getting infected and isolated, but the health workers are slowly recovering, Garganera said.

“Manggraduate naman pud to sila gikan isolation so basin maka open na og more beds atong hospitals,” said the councilor.

Even though the deaths in January were higher than the EOC wanted, Garganera hopes February would bring hope for a reduction of the Alert Level status in the city from Alert Level 3 to at least Alert Level 2.

This will now depend on the cooperation of the public on the health protocols, he said. /rcg

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