Aklan mayors told to prepare burial grounds for COVID-19 fatalities

ILOILO CITY—The lone crematory on Panay Island is overwhelmed with the number of COVID-19 fatalities amid the continued surge in cases.

Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores advised mayors of the 17 towns in the province to prepare burial grounds in their respective municipalities for residents who died from the COVID-19 because the Gegato Abecia Funeral Homes and Crematory in Iloilo City stopped receiving cadavers due to the huge volume being sent for cremation.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government was also preparing in case the crematorium would close its services for the city.

The Department of Health in Western Visayas reported 166 COVID-19 related deaths in the region from July 20 to August 2.

The active COVID-19 cases in the region reached 10,641 as of Aug. 2.

Aklan has been placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine from August 1 to 15.

The Aklan Medical Society earlier said an average of 147 new COVID-19 cases and two to three deaths in the province were recorded daily from July 18 to 24 due to a surge in cases.

“This steady increase of cases has placed a heavy toll on our front-liners and soon this will exhaust our resources such as hospital and health facility beds, medicines and mechanical ventilators,” the group said in a letter to Miraflores.

The province’s COVID-19 Average Daily Attack Rate (ADAR) from June 29 to July 12 reached 16.12 percent and increased to 21.29 percent from July 13 to July 26.

ADAR is derived by dividing the number of new COVID-19 cases in a city or province over a two-week period with its population.

An ADAR higher than seven is considered high risk.

Miraflores also cited the positivity rate of the province reaching from 40 to 50 percent.

The positivity rate is the percentage of those who tested positive for the new coronavirus out of the total number of individuals tested.

As the number of cases increased, COVID-19 hospital beds in Aklan have also become scarcer with the utilization rate reaching 91.84 percent.

Treñas said there has been a decreasing number of cases in the city but he said hospitals are accommodating patients from other provinces due to the lack of intensive care unit beds in the neighboring provinces.