Mayor Joy Belmonte with LGU officials in the first flag ceremony this new year
The Quezon City government is prepared for another surge of the dreaded coronavirus disease.
“Even before the year ended, the city government already created Task Force Omicron dedicated to reinforcing the strategies and mitigating the spread of the virus,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
She also called on all symptomatic persons to isolate immediately to minimize the risk of spreading the virus. At the same time, she asked everybody to be patient, as testing of both symptomatic patients and close contacts is slowed down by increased demand.
QC Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) Head Dr. Rolly Cruz disclosed that there is now a high volume of requests from people who want to get tested.
“We observed a rapid increase of people who want to get tested, mostly from those who experience symptoms such as colds and cough, which is also common during this season. The rise in demand also affected the turnaround time in receiving their test results,” Dr. Cruz said.
Likewise, private laboratory Hi-Precision also reported an increase in people lining up for COVID-19 tests in their branches. Hi-Precision branches started testing more people beginning January 2, those who either experienced symptoms or have been exposed to a confirmed positive person during the holidays.
Given the high demand for testing and also efficiently maximizing the resources of the city government ontest kits, Dr. Cruz said that CESU will prioritize those who are with moderate to severe symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, especially among the unvaccinated, and high risk populations.
“We advise those experiencing flu-like symptoms such as colds, runny nose, cough or fever, to isolate themselves from their family members immediately,” Dr. Cruz said. “They can be tested in our community-based testing sites after booking an appointment online or schedule home testing when circumstances demand,” he added.
Grab of QC government official graphics
In recent days, Quezon City and the rest of NCR+ recorded higher COVID-19 cases. The OCTA Research Group reported an average of 333 new cases per day for the week of December 29 to January 3, compared to an average of 18 new cases during the week of December 21 to 28. This is a 1750 percent increase over the course of one week.
Other COVID-19 indicators also increased, such as reproduction rate, which is now at 4.79 from .60; average daily attack rate per 100,000, which is now at 10.46 from .60; and positivity rate now at 18% from only 1.8% last week.
According to OCTA Research Fellow Dr. Guido David, the sudden rise of current cases may even go beyond the peak of the Delta surge of September 2021 when the positivity rate rose to 25%.
“We are not yet close to the peak of the Delta surge but at the rate things are going, it is very possible that we will reach it very soon. The numbers are increasing so rapidly and we might hit the previously recorded highest numbers by next week,” Dr. David said.
The Department of Health assumes that local transmission of Omicron variants has already been established by scientific evidence, so more COVID-19 positives in communities are expected given its very high transmissibility.
As of January 4, active cases in Quezon City are 3,560 (1.93%), deaths are at 1,632 (.89%), while recoveries are at 178,799 (97.18%). Mayor Belmonte urged all QCitizen to get their vaccine and booster shots so they may have increased protection against the virus.
The city government is also implementing an intensive communications campaign and setting up more vaccination sites to encourage all QCitizens to get vaccinated or get their booster shots as soon as possible.