LUCENA CITY, Philippines – The number of active COVID-19 cases in Quezon province has jumped to 23 as of Friday, December 31, from only nine more than a week ago, indicating a slow uptick amid increased holiday mobility.
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) in its 5 p.m. bulletin reported three new COVID-19 cases in Sariaya town, two in Tayabas City, and one each in the municipalities of Infanta, Patnanungan, and Polillo.
The tally for the day listed one recovery and zero fatality.
On December 22, the IPHO listed nine active COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day tally in recent months, from the highest single-day tally at 2,570 on September 21.
The IPHO recorded zero COVID-19 cases on December 1, 11, 12, 15, 25, 26, and 27.
From the whole month of December, the province logged 64 new COVID-19 patients, from 211 in November, 2,115 in October, and 5,342 in September.
At least 12 of the 41 local governments in the province no longer have COVID-19 patients as of Friday.
The data showed that the towns of Lopez, Buenavista, Calauag, San Antonio, Candelaria, Infanta, Patnanungan and Polillo have one active case each; Tayabas City, 2; Lucena City and Lucban, with 3 each.
Sariaya town topped the list with seven active COVID-19 infections.
The COVID-19 death toll in Quezon since March last year stood at 1,480, with Lucena recording the most at 223.
Quezon recorded 27,850 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic struck last year, with 26,347 recoveries.
The entire country will remain under Alert Level 2 until January 15, 2022, Malacañang announced Thursday.
Alert Level 2 is the second most-relaxed alert level in the government’s five-tiered COVID-19 alert level system.
The COVID-19 positivity rate across the country slowly rose from 0.8 on December 19 to 2.6 on December 28, before jumping to Friday’s 10.3 percent in the 30,526 individuals tested.
This was double the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent, which is supposed to indicate controlled transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease. INQ