DURING her special hour on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio on Monday, May 10, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said they have noted that the active Covid-19 cases in the city have been steadily increasing in the past week.
Based on the data from the Department of Health in Davao Region, the city's active cases grew to 513 on May 9 from 372 cases on May 3. The city recorded its highest number of new cases in a week on May 9 with 74 new cases.
Data from the City Government of Davao also showed that the city went from minimal risk to moderate risk.
Based on the city's latest Barangay Classifications for May 10 to 15, there are seven barangays that are classified as high-risk, 17 as moderate risk, and 20 as moderate risk due to close proximity to high risk barangays. The remaining 138 barangays are classified as low and minimal risk.
Meanwhile, in the Barangay Classifications for May 3 to 8, there were only eight moderate risk barangays while the rest are low and minimal risk barangays.
Comparing the two data, high and moderate risk barangays went from eight to 44 in a span of one week.
The mayor said the increase could be a result of outbreaks in several establishments and offices, especially government offices.
She also mentioned that the increase could also be due to the city's intensified contact tracing and testing measures. Dr. Asley Lopez, Davao City Health Office acting head, already gave a heads up to the public that there will be a possibility of a sudden spike with the increased testing as more Covid-19 cases will be detected. However, it has yet to be determined how much the surveillance testing contributes to the daily cases.
"Is it a cause for alarm? Yes. Is [there a] surge? According to the presentation of Dr. [Ashley] Lopez, not yet. But It seems to indicate that there is a pre-surge," Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor warned that if active cases continue to increase it could put Davao City in a much stricter community quarantine status, which many of us do not want to happen.
The recent increase in cases is already seen as a red flag by the local government unit and local health authorities. For the general public, we also have to see that this is a red flag.
We can start by being more disciplined in following minimum health standards at our workplace. Due to familiarity, we tend to let our guards down when at the offices but at the same time we are putting ourselves at risk and the people around us.
We saw what happened with National Capital Region Plus when there was a sudden spike in active cases. We are also seeing the impact of a second wave in other nations. Since we do not want these to happen, we have to be disciplined in following the minimum health protocols.