BALANGA, BATAAN — The province of Bataan has already breached the 1,000 mark of active COVID-19 cases today, May 6, after registering continuous increase in daily cases since March.
According to data released by the Bataan Provincial Health Office (PHO), there are now 1,020 active cases and 197 deaths. Contact-tracing efforts revealed that the surge can be traced from infections affecting not just one individual per family but entire households, including children.
It was also observed that transmission in the workplace is rampant.
The COVID-19 Dashboard monitoring system revealed concentration of recent infections in the city of Balanga and municipalities of Mariveles, Dinalupihan, Limay, Pilar, Orion and Morong.
Dr. Glory Baltazar, chief of the Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center, attributes the increased death rate to the fact that most cases being brought to the hospitals are already at a late stage and that most of the patients have pre-existing conditions or co-morbidities like diabetes, renal disease, stroke or hypertension.
She confirmed that BGHMC is already at full capacity but made assurances that they are capable of handling the situation.
“Even if our ICU or COVID wards are fully occupied, we hook critical patients to mechanical ventilators while still at the resuscitation tent until there is already a bed vacancy. We coordinate with private and district hospitals to manage mild cases and we do manpower recall,” Said Baltazar.
The BGHMC is the only tertiary hospital in the province designated to treat moderate, severe and critical COVID-19 cases
In light of all these, Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia strongly urged all mayors to intensify checkpoints in every barangay to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the communities.
He also reiterated the importance of consenting to be vaccinated to help stop the spread of the virus and halt its possible mutation along the way.
To date, 14,320 people have already received their first dose of vaccine in Bataan, while 1,630 health workers have received their second dose already.
Six out of the 13 planned inoculation centers have already been set up in the different municipalities and city in Bataan to provide ease and comfort to the public during the vaccine roll-out.