79% of cebu’s january Covid dead ‘unvaccinated,’ says DOH 7 official

File photo
File photo

OF THE 132 confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) fatalities recorded in Cebu’s public and private hospitals for the first 24 days of the year, 105 were found to be unvaccinated.

This was what Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7), said during her briefer at the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.

Loreche said Cebu Island had a total of 132 Covid deaths from Jan. 1 to 24, of whom 83 were recorded in public hospitals and 49 in private hospitals.

Of the unvaccinated Covid-19 deaths, Loreche said 71 were recorded in public hospitals while 34 were recorded in private hospitals in Cebu.

The rest of the Covid-19 deaths were partially and fully vaccinated individuals.

But Loreche said this was not the total number of deaths yet, citing deaths that have yet to be reported by the hospitals and those who died due to Covid-19 in their respective houses.

Loreche made the emphasis after she received private messages from individuals asking her about the purpose of getting vaccinated against Covid-19 when there are also individuals who died even if they were fully vaccinated.

“Kung titingnan mo (If you look at it), what is your probability if you are fully vaccinated and boosted and you get any variant of concern of Covid-19 that you will end up dead?” said Loreche, adding that statistics or the numbers do not lie and cannot be refuted. “So I would rather belong to the higher group numbers na I am at least having that probability the greater chance of being alive,” she stressed.

In a related development, Loreche said 21 of the reported deaths in Cebu from Jan. 1 to 22 were residents of Cebu City, four of Mandaue City, 15 of Cebu Province, and one of Lapu-Lapu City.

When it comes to the case fatality rate (CFR) in the same period of time, Loreche said Cebu City’s CFR was 0.31 percent; Mandaue City, 0.24 percent; Lapu-Lapu City, 0.07 percent; and Cebu Province’s was highest, at a 0.39 percent CFR.

But she clarified that the Covid deaths are not purely due to Covid-19, saying that patients are admitted because of other reasons such as stroke, heart attack, or those needing elective surgery.

“Because the protocol of the hospitals is on the triaging area, you need to be tested for Covid-19. So parang minsan nagiging incidental finding ‘yung Covid-19 sa iyo. Nalaman mo lang na may Covid ka dahil na admit ikaw. So maganda na rin para alam mo,” she explained.

As for the admissions, Loreche said of the 495 admitted patients in the first 22 days of January in private hospitals, Cebu Province had the highest with 334 patients; Cebu City with 104 patients; Lapu-Lapu City with 13 patients; Mandaue City with 43 patients, while the location of one was unspecified.

As of Jan. 25, a total of 5,070,548 doses of vaccines had been administered on Cebu Island.

Of the number, 2,687,640 were administered as first dose, while 2,276,655 and 106,253 were for the second dose and booster dose, respectively.

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