ILOILO CITY—The death toll from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Western Visayas region has reached 109.

Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, chief for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of the Department of Health (DOH-6), said eight new deaths were recorded Friday, September 11.
Five of the eight new fatalities were from Bacolod City including two 82-year-old women. Other fatalities in the city were a 69-year-old woman, a 64-year-old man and a 57-year-old man.
The other three were from the component cities of Negros Occidental province, including an 82-year-old man from Talisay, a 72-year-old man from Bago and 59-year-old woman from Silay.
While majority of the 3,292 active cases of COVID-19 are asymptomatic, Te said the public should be worried when there has been a rise of deaths in the past month-and-a-half that are attributed to the surge of locally transmitted cases.
“Remember, all of us are potentially infected. We can catch the virus anytime,” Te responded to the inquiry of Manila Bulletin.
“There are even others, who, we don’t even know, have already been infected. That’s the reason we should not be complacent,” Te added.
But Te pointed out that those who died from COVID-19 had pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Meanwhile, Western Visayas registered 261 new confirmed cases Friday. It included 222 locally transmitted cases.