TWO months after its first confirmed Covid-19 cases were announced on March 29, 2020, Cebu City has surpassed the 2,000 mark in the number of Covid-19 infections in the city.
On Thursday, May 28, the Cebu City Government announced 42 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the City’s total to 2,055.
Of the number, 1,559 cases remain active.
City Hall also announced 77 new laboratory-negative cases from Barangays Suba (three), Bacayan (eight), Punta Princesa (three), Labangon (one), and Luz (62), bringing the total number of laboratory-negatives to 471.
Cebu City Hall spokesperson Rey Gealon said 161 asymptomatic Covid-19 patients staying at isolation centers in Barangays Bacayan, Carreta, Mambaling, Inayawan and Luz will be released on Friday, May 29 after their laboratory tests yielded negative results for the virus.
Of those scheduled for release, 31 are from Bacayan, 23 from Carreta, 44 from Mambaling, one from Inayawan, and 62 from Luz.
Meanwhile, the 42 new Covid-19 cases are from Barangays Tejero (two); Sambag 2 (three); Tisa (one); Inayawan (one); Ermita (two); Basak Pardo (one); Mambaling (one); Sawang Calero (one); Pahina Central (one); Duljo (one); Suba (three); Pasil (22); two from the Cebu City Jail while there is one with unverified address.
Other cases
In Lapu-Lapu City, four new Covid-19 cases were reported on Thursday.
Mayor Junard "Ahong" Chan said the four new cases are from Barangays Pajac, Gun-ob, Basak and Pajo.
In the Province, eight new Covid-19 cases were also reported.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said of the eight, five are from Barangay Linao, Minglanilla town.
The others are from Talisay City (two) and Dumanjug town (one).
Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. said the City’s two new cases are a 66-year-old man from Barangay Tanke who was admitted to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) and a 25-year-old man from Barangay Dumlog who works for a hospital in Cebu City.
Gullas has contacted the family of the two patients and asked them to be subjected to swab tests.
Talisay City now has 46 Covid cases with six deaths and two recoveries.
A 41-year-old dialysis patient from Dumanjug town also tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
Two inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) also yielded positive results for Covid-19 during a repeat test, Garcia said.
Cebu Province now has a total of 144 Covid-19 cases.
All-time high
Nationwide, new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the Philippines hit an all-time high of 539 in the last 24 hours.
This as the Department of Health (DOH) improved its capability to validate cases.
The latest number, as of Thursday, is higher than the 538 recorded on March 31, which epidemiologists earlier considered as the peak of the country’s epidemic curve.
The total case count increased to 15,588 as of 4 p.m. Thursday, just a few hours before President Rodrigo Duterte was expected to announce his decision on the recommendation to downgrade quarantine restrictions.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, during the regular virtual press briefing Thursday, attributed the spike in cases to the department’s improved capability to validate reported cases with the hiring of additional encoders.
“We expect the number of cases to continue increasing in the next few days because we are still validating other reported cases,” she said in Tagalog.
“The number of cases is on an uptrend because of the increasing number of cases that have been validated with the hiring of additional encoders,” Vergeire added.
Of the new cases, 330 come from the National Capital Region or Metro Manila, 55 from Central Visayas or Region 7, 99 from other regions, and 55 from among the repatriates.
The DOH also reported 17 additional mortalities, raising the death toll to 921.
An additional 92 patients have recovered from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), bringing total recoveries to 3,598 as of Thursday.
Among overseas Filipinos in 47 countries, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Covid-19 cases went up to 2,821 as of May 28.
No new deaths were reported and the death toll remained at 334.
Of the remaining total, 1,553 are receiving supportive care while 934 have recovered or have been discharged.
Worldwide, Covid-19 has killed 349,095 out of the more than 5.48 million people who have been infected. (JJL, NDT, JCT, ANV/JKV, MVI/SunStar Philippines)