NEW coronavirus infections continued to decline and stayed below 1,800 a day in the first week of December 2020, Department of Health (DOH) case bulletins showed.
A total of 1,768 new infections were confirmed on Sunday, December 6, 2020, bringing the total case count in the last seven days from November 30 to 9,970 or an average of 1,424 new cases a day.
This was nearly 10 percent lower than the 11,046 cases confirmed in the past week from November 23 to 29. New cases that week averaged 1,578 a day.
There are now a total of 439,834 coronavirus infections in the Philippines.
Mass recoveries every Sunday declined as well to 9,062 on December 3, around 14 percent lower than the 10,579 recoveries reported on November 29.
As of Sunday, there have been a total of 408,634 recoveries, or 92.9 percent of the total case count.
There were 29 additional mortalities from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Sunday, raising the death toll in the country to 8,554. The case fatality rate declined again to 1.94 percent.
The case fatality rate for Covid-19 in the Philippines has been fluctuating between 1.94 percent and 1.95 percent.
The highest number of new cases on Sunday came from Quezon City (112), Laguna (94), Rizal (90), Davao City (71) and Benguet (69).
As of December 4, six regions still had over 1,000 active cases, namely, National Capital Region (7,728), Calabarzon (5,699), Central Luzon (2,810), Davao Region (2,271), Western Visayas (1,704) and Central Visayas (1,231).
The rest of the regions had less than 1,000 active cases, which refers to coronavirus-positive individuals who are either confined in a hospital or under quarantine in an isolation facility.
A total of 23,871 tests to detect Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, were conducted on December 5. Of the total, 1,100 or 4.6 percent yielded positive results.
Globally, more than 66.57 million people have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 and more than 1.5 million had died from Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
In Cebu City, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) noted a “drastic decrease” in active Covid-19 cases.
The city has been logging single-digit cases for the past eight days.
In mid-November, the EOC noted a spike in cases when the city logged double digits for several consecutive days.
“The drop in active cases is drastic,” City Councilor Joel Garganera, EOC deputy chief implementer, said in Cebuano.
Based on the EOC data, the city had 198 active cases as of Saturday.
Garganera also said that more barangays have reported zero Covid-19 transmission in the last two weeks. Of the city’s 80 barangays, only 31 have active cases, he said.
“When daily recoveries are much higher than the positive is a very good sign. Positivity rate of 1.27 percent is very much lower than the WHO (World Health Organization) threshold of five percent,” Garganera said.
The city has a total confirmed Covid-19 cases of 10,688 with 9,804 recoveries. The city’s recovery rate is 91.72 percent.
The Covid-19 death toll in the city remains at 685, or a case fatality rate of 6.40 percent.
Globally, more than 66.57 million people have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 and more than 1.5 million had died from Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Meanwhile, stranded individuals in Cebu City who plan to return to their respective hometowns that require a negative swab test result this holiday season can still avail themselves of a free swab test from the government.
The free swab test is available Monday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Bayanihan Cebu Swabbing Center in the International Eucharistic Congress Convention Center on Pope John Paul II Ave. in Barangay Mabolo.
The center requires the public to book their test ahead since it does not accept walk-ins.
The Bayanihan Cebu can be reached through its official Facebook page at Bayanihan Cebu PH.
As of Friday, Dec. 4, the center had conducted 23,257 swabs, or a daily average of 191 swabs.
The center already released a total of 23,012 results (98.9 percent), with 245 swabs still awaiting results.
The expected turnaround time is three to five days. The count starts the day after the swab test, excluding weekends.
Aside from the Bayanihan Cebu Swabbing Center, the public can also avail themselves of the free walk-in and drive-in swab test at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
Rey Cris Panugaling, head of the VSMMC’s Information, Communication and Strategy Management Office, they already conducted 29,300 swabs, as of Nov. 25. Of the number, 16,653 were drive-ins, while 12,647 were walk-ins.
Those who want to be tested must first register online at the VSMMC official website to book an appointment.
The result of the test is usually sent through email after four days.
The hospital earlier said it could accommodate 20 walk-ins per hour and 10 drive-ins per hour.
(Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines, WBS, JJL)