LUCENA CITY—The COVID-19 rampage in Quezon province continued with a record-high daily tally of 107 new cases on Friday (April 9), according to health authorities.
In a 5 p.m. bulletin, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) said Candelaria town as on top of the list of places with the highest cases with 17 followed by the island-town of Polillo with 15.
On April 8, the IPHO recorded 101 new COVID-19 cases topped by Sariaya town with 28.
The province has been seeing an alarming spike of COVID-19 cases and number of fatalities since the start of April.
The COVID-19 death toll in the province is now 308 after a patient in Tiaong town was added to the mortality list.
In the past nine days, a total of 23 patients had died in the province.
From April 1 to 9, authorities recorded 580 new COVID-19 cases that rose to the current number of active cases to 890 from only 597 nine days ago.
In March, a total of 825 COVID-19 cases were recorded, compared to only 342 in February.
As of April 9, Quezon, has logged a total of 8,724 COVID-19 cases and 7,526 recoveries.
On April 6, Gov. Danilo Suarez issued an executive order placing 17 municipalities on general community quarantine (GCQ) from April 7 to 21.
The towns and places now on GCQ are San Antonio, Candelaria, Tiaong, Dolores, Sariaya, Tayabas City, Lucban, Pagbilao, Mauban, Infanta, Real, General Nakar, Polillo, Macalelon, Guinayangan, Gumaca and Alabat.
“The continuing rise in the number of confirmed cases is alarming and poses an immense threat to the lives and safety of the people,” Suarez said.
Lucena City and the rest of 23 towns in the province will continue to be on the more relaxed modified GCQ. The entire province had been on MGCQ since September 2020.
Suarez said the provincial government-run Quezon Medical Center, district hospitals and all rural health units in the province “are currently overwhelmed with the upsurge in the number of cases.”
To address the threat to the health care system, the Department of Health (DOH) has distributed tents each to these health facilities:
- Bondoc Peninsula District Hospital in Catanauan town
- Claro M. Recto Memorial District Hospital in Infanta
- Gumaca District Hospital in Gumaca
- Magsaysay Memorial District Hospital in Lopez
- RAKK Prophet Medical Center Inc. in Gumaca
- Quezon Medical Center in Lucena City
The tents, each with 44-bed capacity, seek to be used for emergency medical care and extension of health facilities.
Dr. Eduardo Janairo, DOH Calabarzon director, classified Quezon province as “low risk” in terms of bed occupancy rate of 57.8 percent. However, Lucena is classified as “moderate risk” with 62.5 percent bed occupancy rate.
“We have to be prepared to handle the influx of Covid patients not only from the provinces but also those of nearby Metro Manila,” Janairo said.