WHILE cases in the National Capital Region Plus (NCR plus) were declining, cases in the Visayas and Mindanao were rising, according to the Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Bureau.
Dr. Alethea de Guzman, Epidemiology Bureau director, said Thursday, May 27, 2021, that nine of 11 regions that posted positive two-week growth rates as of May 22 are in the Visayas and Mindanao.
These are Zamboanga Peninsula, Caraga, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen, Central Visayas, Davao, Eastern Visayas and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The two other regions with positive two-week growth rates were Mimaropa and Ilocos.
Two of these regions, Ilocos and Central Visayas, posted the highest intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rates of 86 percent and 79 percent, respectively.
On Thursday, coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases nationwide hit 1.2 million and deaths climbed to a new high in nearly seven weeks.
The DOH case bulletin recorded 6,483 new infections, which brought the Philippines’ total Covid-19 caseload to 1,200,430. There were 25 duplicates, including 22 recoveries, that were removed from the case count.
There were 210 additional deaths, the highest since the 225 reported on April 10, as 139 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as mortalities.
These raised the Covid-19 death toll in the Philippines to 20,379. The case fatality rate went up to 1.7 percent.
There were 4,335 new recoveries, bringing the total to 1,131,942, or 94.3 percent of the total caseload.
With new infections exceeding the recoveries, the number of active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities increased to 48,109, or 4.0 percent of the total case count.
Testing improved on May 25, with a total of 47,869 samples tested for Sars-CoV-2. Of these, 12.5 percent yielded positive results.
In her presentation during the Kapihan session on the Covid-19 situation Thursday, De Guzman noted that daily tests declined by 2.1 percent in the recent seven days as of May 24 compared to the previous week.
The positivity rate has remained above 12 percent, however. But De Guzman pointed out that this has dropped from a peak of over 20 percent in April.
The seven-day moving average of new cases has declined further to 5,130 on May 19 to 25 from 5,848 on May 12 to 18, about half of the peak of 10,849 on April 9 to 15.
“Medyo bumabagal na po yang pag-decline. (Cases are) still going down, but not as fast,” she said. The goal now is to bring this down further to below 2,000, the daily average in January and February.
She said cases in NCR, epicenter of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country, were decreasing rapidly, but those in other regions were increasing.
In NCR, cases averaged 1,049 a day on May 19 to 25, lower than the 1,367 on May 12 to 18 and the peak of 5,537 on March 29 to April 4.
The NCR, Cordillera and Cagayan Valley are now classified as moderate risk, despite the high average daily attack rates.
All three Visayas regions showed an upward trend, with Western Visayas recording the fastest growth rate and Central Visayas at high risk in terms of ICU utilization.
Central, Eastern and Western Visayas, along with six other regions in the Visayas and Mindanao, are also classified as moderate risk.
Calabarzon, Central Luzon and Bicol are already classified as low risk, but De Guzman said they were monitoring the ICU utilization rates. Calabarzon and Central Luzon are classified as high risk in terms of ICU utilization, which was both at 71 percent.
In Mindanao, the highest increase in cases was reported in Zamboanga Peninsula and Northern Mindanao. All other regions in Mindanao also showed a rising trend. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)