DOH shifts focus to Negros Oriental

DUMAGUETE CITY—The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) is keeping its eye on Negros Oriental that now has the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in the region.

Dr. Jaime Bernadas, DOH-7 director, said they have deployed medical personnel to the province to support its government and private hospitals amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

“We have encouraged them to open those (COVID-19) spaces. We supported them with health personnel and nurses so they can expand and open (more rooms),” he said.

The capital city of Dumaguete, he said, pledged to be more careful in identifying and isolating cases to contain the spread of the virus.

Early this month, DOH-7 sent nine Cebu-based nurses to the Silliman University Medical Center in Dumaguete to help their counterparts in attending to patients infected with COVID-19.

At least five more nurses were recently deployed at the Negros Polymedic Hospital in Sibulan town, just seven months after it started operations in November last year.

The hospital, which earlier announced that it would not accept coronavirus patients, has since added to its bedroom capacity to accommodate more patients.

OCTA Research, a group that oversees and studies the COVID-19 situation in the country, recently announced that Dumaguete has a bed capacity of 68 percent, which is lower than in previous weeks.

The city, however, still has an average daily attack rate of 38.66.

Daily attack rate, in epidemiology, is the proportion of people who become ill with or who die from a disease.

The Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force announced Tuesday that Negros Oriental has 705 new COVID-19 infections, an accumulation of test results from June 16 to 21.

Negros Oriental now has 2,337 active coronavirus cases under isolation or treatment. Dumaguete City remains as the province’s COVID-19 epicenter with 925 active cases, followed by Tanjay City (232), Sibulan (175), Siaton (123), and Bayawan City (113).

Local governments in Negros Oriental are now vaccinating persons with comorbidities, along with senior citizens, and healthcare workers. The province is currently under the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine.

LZB