{"id":259509,"date":"2020-06-26T22:05:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T02:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=259509"},"modified":"2020-06-26T22:05:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T02:05:53","slug":"covid-19-cases-rise-after-relaxation-of-quarantine-doh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/26\/covid-19-cases-rise-after-relaxation-of-quarantine-doh\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 cases rise after relaxation of quarantine: DOH"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FILE: Vehicles are stuck in heavy traffic in both lanes of Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Para\u00f1aque City on Monday (June 22, 2020). (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday reported a rising trend in new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections in some parts of the country following the shift to general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila and most provinces this June.<\/p>\n

In an online briefing, Dr. Beverly Ho, DOH Health Promotion and Communication Service director, said that while the highest number of new cases remained in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Region 7 (Central Visayas) these past months, some regions have reported an increase in the number of their cases in the past 14 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cLumalaki na din po ang mga kaso na nanggagaling sa ibang mga rehiyon. Makikita natin na tumataas ang kaso ng<\/em>\u00a0Region 8\u00a0dito<\/em>\u00a0(There is a rise in the number of infections in other regions. We see a rise in Region 8 [Eastern Visayas]),\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n

Over the past two weeks, she said the top five sectors with the highest number of cases were NCR with 3,641 recent cases, Central Visayas with 2,573, Calabarzon with 405, Eastern Visayas with 234, and repatriates with 198.<\/p>\n

This, compared to the regions with the highest total cases since the pandemic began \u2013 NCR with 9,921, Central Visayas with 5,902, repatriates with 1,778, Calabarzon with 1,092, and Central Luzon with 413.<\/p>\n

Aside from the less stringent quarantine protocols, Ho said the rising number of cases may also be attributed to the increasing daily testing output of the country \u2013 from 8,000 to 10,000 daily testing output in March to 16,000 in June \u2013 and the continued community transmission of the disease.<\/p>\n

She cited the high community transmission in Cebu in Central Visayas, with a positivity rate of 32.8 percent (out of 644 tests per day) from June 16 to 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cAno ibig sabihin nito? Sa kada 100 na nate<\/em>-test,\u00a0halos<\/em>\u00a033\u00a0na tao ang nagpa<\/em>-positive (What does this mean? This means that for every 100 people tested, almost 33 people are positive with Covid-19),\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n

In the same period, she said the NCR had a positivity rate of 7.2 percent (9,877 tests per day), while the whole country, on average, had a 6.8 percent positivity rate (15,168 tests per day).<\/p>\n

While the new data can be alarming, Ho said the country is not helpless against the disease due to its good critical care utilization rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe critical care utilization rate, or\u00a0‘yung<\/em>\u00a0ability\u00a0ng sistema na makapag-<\/em>accommodate\u00a0pa ng mga pasyente, ay ayos pa tayo<\/em>\u00a0(the system\u2019s ability to accommodate patients is still good),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to the latest Covid-19 bulletin of the DOH, the country has a total bed capacity of 13,532 and 2,007 ventilators (19.49 percent currently in use) for Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n

Of the total bed capacity, there are 3,039 ward beds with a 39.98-percent occupancy rate; 9,198 isolation beds, 37.26 percent of which are occupied; and 1,295 beds at the intensive care units with an occupancy rate of 37.3 percent.<\/p>\n

Ho said the public can improve its standing against the disease by following health protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng mas importante\u00a0<\/em>is we know what to do.\u00a0Ayon sa pag-aaral, kung tayo ay magma-<\/em>mask, it reduces our chances\u00a0na mahawa\u00a0<\/em>by 85 percent. If we will observe physical distancing, male-<\/em>lessen\u00a0din ang\u00a0<\/em>chances\u00a0na mahawa tayo<\/em>\u00a0by 80 percent (What\u2019s important is we know what to do. According to studies, masks reduce transmission of the disease by 85 percent. Physical distancing, meanwhile, reduces the chances of transmission by 80 percent),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday reported a rising trend in new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":259510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259511,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259509\/revisions\/259511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}