TACLOBAN CITY –– Cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Eastern Visayas has breached the 3,000-mark after it registered 51 new infections on Tuesday.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the region now has 3,003 COVID-19 cases.
Of the new cases, 38 are from the province of Samar, with Catbalogan City having most of the infections at 26.
Mayor Dexter Uy said the new cases in the city are close contacts of other patients and frontliners.
The city now has 428 COVID-19 cases.
The DOH earlier said there had been a community transmission of the virus in the city.
Aside from Samar province, also posting new cases are Leyte province with 12 and Eastern Samar with one.
Despite the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city, Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he would not impose any lockdown.
He, however, said areas with COVID-19 cases would be closed while contact tracing is done.
Romualdez said closing the city from the rest of the region would deny the 400 kidney patients from other areas access to daily dialysis in Tacloban.
He said Tacloban is the economic hub of the region, and barring people from the city affects business transactions.
The city currently has 422 COVID-19 cases with two deaths.