SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union—Ilocos Norte province recorded 66 new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day, with two deaths and six recoveries, provincial government data showed on Sunday, Jan. 9.
The active cases in the province had jumped to 263 from only three on Dec. 30 last year.
Of the 66 new cases on Sunday, more than half were traced to the capital city of Laoag with 40, followed by the towns of Bangui (9), Pasuquin (6), Sarrat (3), Batac City (3), and Bacarra (2).
At least one case each were recorded in San Nicolas, Currimao, and Vintar towns.
Data also showed that Laoag City now has 111 active patients almost two weeks after declaring zero COVID-19 cases on Dec. 29.
Ilocos Norte’s average daily attack rate was 1.70 per 100,000 population on Saturday, and this rose to 2.26 on Sunday, the Department of Health tracker showed.
Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the province had recorded 19,228 total cases, of which 18,474 had recovered while 489 had died, the provincial government said.
At the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital in Batac City, at least 18 health workers were isolated after three more tested positive for the virus on Sunday.