Quezon, Pampanga see significant drop in COVID-19 cases
ISLAND PARADISE Borawan Island, in this prepandemic photo, is a top tourist destination in Padre Burgos town of Quezon. The town, among 17 COVID-19-free municipalities in the province, is now open to fully vaccinated visitors. —PHOTO COURTESY OF TSIBOY MALLARI
LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — The provinces of Quezon in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region and Pampanga in Central Luzon have started to see a major drop in COVID-19 cases during the weekend, health records from these localities showed.
At least 17 of the 41 municipalities in Quezon are now free from coronavirus infections as the province continued to record a remarkable drop in new COVID-19 cases.
Considered COVID-19-free were the towns of San Andres, Plaridel, Gumaca, Padre Burgos, Unisan, General Nakar, Sampaloc, Lucban, Candelaria, Dolores, Mulanay, Infanta, Patnanungan, Alabat, Burdeos, Jomalig and Polillio, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (Ipho) said in a bulletin on Saturday.
The province also recorded only seven new infections on Saturday, another single-digit-day tally in recent days and one of the lowest since the pandemic started in March last year, health authorities said.
The recorded active cases in Quezon have also consequently declined to only 102 as of Saturday, from the highest single-day tally of 2,570 on Sept. 21.From Nov. 1 to Nov. 20, the Ipho listed a total of only 179 new COVID-19 cases, a significant drop from the 2,060 active cases recorded at the end of October and the 5,343 cases logged in September.
Gov. Danilo Suarez urged residents in the province to remain vigilant against COVID-19 even if the province is now under the less stringent alert level 2 until Nov. 30.
“Despite the decline of COVID-19 cases, we all have to continue our relentless campaign to finally control, if not totally end, the pandemic,” Suarez said on Sunday.
Downward trajectory
In Pampanga province, 12 of its 19 towns and two of its cities did not record any new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, records from local health offices showed.
The neighboring cities of Mabalacat and Angeles have no new infections as of Saturday while the capital City of San Fernando posted only a single new case, revealing a downward trajectory of transmissions in these localities.
The provincial government’s latest bulletin posted on Nov. 19 also showed that 12 towns had no new cases. These were Magalang, Guagua, Porac, Sasmuan, Sta. Rita, Bacolor, Mexico, Sta. Ana, Apalit, Candaba, Minalin and San Luis. These towns, except Apalit, still have single-digit active cases.
As a whole, the province’s hospitals were still treating 273 active cases as of Nov. 19, health authorities said.
Mabalacat’s active COVID-19 cases stood at 17, while those in Angeles dropped to 18 after it registered four recoveries and no deaths, local health records showed.
As of Saturday, only eight of Mabalacat’s 27 villages have active COVID-19 cases while 21 of the 33 villages in Angeles were free of COVID-19, the same data showed.
Since the pandemic broke out last year, Mabalacat has tallied 7,226 total cases, of which 6,982 have recovered while 227 have died.
Angeles City recorded 12,532 infections since last year, with 1,995 recoveries and 519 deaths. San Fernando’s active cases stood at 49 on Saturday after registering a single recovery and no death. It’s total cases reached 11,270, of which 10,896 patients have recovered and 325 had died.
