By Marie Tonette Marticio
TACLOBAN City - The Department of Health-Eastern Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-EV CHD) has reported a 1,671-percent increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in less than a month.
From only 28 COVID-19 patients recorded on May 26, the number of cases has ballooned to 496 Friday, June 26, due to the increasing number of returning residents in the region, including beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsiya Program, returning oversease Filipino workers (OFWs), and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
DOH-EV CHD has confirmed a total of 28 new cases out of 386 results released by the two COVID Testing Laboratories located in this city on Friday.
The Eastern Visayas Regional COVID Testing Center (EVRCTC) has released a total of 333 laboratory results. Of these, 307 were negative, including 37 employees of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, and 26 positive for COVID-19. They will be tagged as Patients EV 469 to EV 494.
In Southern Leyte, the municipalities of Sogod has recorded five (EV 469 to EV 473)
and Libagon one (EV 474), an LSI from Cebu.
Samar province has 17 cases with one coming from
Paranas (EV 475), two from San Jorge (EV 476 and EV 477), six from Calbayog City (EV 478 to EV 483), and eight from Catbalogan City (EV 484 to EV 491).
Leyte has five new cases with one each from Tacloban City (EV 492),
Ormoc City (EV 493), Dagami (EV 494) Leyte town (EV 495), and Palo (EV496).
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered to temporarily stop sending LSIs until July 9.