CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- The total number of active Covid-19 cases here has climbed to 204 following the detection of 25 new cases, the City Health Office (CHO) reported on Monday, August 15.
CHO head Dr. Rachel Dilla said in a press briefing that of the 204 active cases, 94 are currently admitted in the hospitals and the remaining 110 are currently admitted in the temporary treatment and monitoring facility (TTMF).
The new 25 Covid-19 cases have brought the total cumulative cases in the city to 26,585 as of August 14. Of the said figure, 25,435 have already been recovered and 946 have died.
The active cases here continue to rise as the city also continues to detect Covid-19 cases in double digits.
Over the past week (August 8-14), the city has recorded a total of 180 cases -- 14 new cases recorded on August 8, followed by 36 cases on the next day, August 9; 29 cases on August 10; 30 cases on August 11; 23 cases each on August 12 and August 13, and 25 cases on August 14.
However, from 181 active cases on August 7, the total active cases only climbed to 204 on August 14 - with only 23 cases difference over the past week - as the city government also continues to tally additional cases that have been recovered from the virus.
Is this alarming?
Despite the rise, the active cases remain low or only 0.76 percent out of the total cumulative cases in the city, said CHO medical officer Dr. Teodoro Yu in the same press briefing.
“Sa atin pong active cases, hindi po dapat tayo maalarma kasi nasa .76 o wala pang one percent of our active cases ngayon (As for our active cases, we should not be alarmed because still .76 or less than one percent of our active cases now),” Yu said.
Apart from additional cases detected per day, the number of recoveries in this city also went up. In fact, over the past week (August 8-14), a total of 156 recoveries have been recorded by the CHO, which is nearly close to the number of additional cases recorded in the same period.
Yu and Dilla underscored the importance of strictly following the minimum public health standards and the huge help of vaccination to fight the continuous detection of Covid-19.
“An pinaka-importante na mensahe pa rin namin dito ang ating (The important message we have here is our) minimum public health standards and of course, paulit-ulit po namin’g in-emphasize talaga ang aming bakuna (we really always emphasize our vaccines),” Yu said.
“Ang (the city of) Cagayan de Oro nag-enjoy nga (has enjoyed that) from level 2 nahimo dayon tag (we became) level 1 because taas ang atong (we have high) coverage sa (on our) vaccination,” Dilla added as she echoed Yu’s statement.
As of August 14, the city government here has already recorded 557,408 fully vaccinated individuals, which is equivalent to 92.14 percent coverage out of the 604,953 target population.
For booster vaccination, the city has recorded a total of 155,702 individuals who received their booster shots. This is 25.73 percent coverage out of the city’s target population.
Vaccination in offices
To improve the vaccination coverage, Dilla said the CHO is eyeing to bring the vaccination to the different offices here.
This is in response to the Department of Health (DOH) regional office 10’s call to the local government units (LGUs) to visit offices to inoculate employees who are unable to leave their work.
“Maybe one of these days we will come to that,” Dilla said.
“Tinuod mana. Kana bitaw dili kaayo interesado, pero kung naa na, magpa-vaccine sila (That is true. For those who are not interested , if it’s already there, they would get vaccinated),” she added.
Apart from vaccination in the sites and hospitals, the city’s Covid-19 vaccination team already has a mobile vaccination team that conducts house to house inoculation, especially for senior citizens and bedridden individuals.
Recently, the mobile vaccination team has conducted an inoculation against Covid-19 at the city hall’s mini park, where they also visited different offices inside city hall.
The CHO is also waiting for their papers to complete and the medicines to arrive before they can start providing incentives during vaccination, as part of the strategy of the city government to improve the coverage.
The city health officials reminded residents to do their part in protecting themselves against the virus, especially in attending activities in line with the month-long celebration of Higalaay Festival here this month of August.