Active COVID-19 cases drop in Quezon due to recoveries

LUCENA CITY — The number of active COVID-19 cases in Quezon province has gone down by over 1,000 in two weeks as recoveries continued to outpace the daily tally of new patients, local data showed on Wednesday, Feb. 2.

The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) recorded 69 new COVID-19 cases and 117 recoveries on that day.

As a result, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Quezon dropped to 731 from the highest recent tally of 1,805 on Jan. 21.

The day’s record followed the sustained trend of recoveries of COVID-19 patients, surpassing the record of new infections in the past two weeks.

Data also showed that Quezon province had recorded 4,140 COVID-19 cases in January as a possible result of holiday mobility and the Omicron variant.

The number of new cases in January was an alarming increase from 64 in December and 211 in November last year. The province had only nine active cases on Dec. 22, 2021.

The recorded cases in January is the second-highest monthly tally in recent months, topped by 5,343 cases in September last year at the height of the Delta variant.

Of 39 municipalities and two cities in Quezon, only Plaridel town and the island municipality of Panukulan off the Pacific Ocean remained COVID-19-free as of Feb. 2.

Gov. Danilo Suarez appealed to residents to remain vigilant and continue practicing basic health protocols, like wearing face masks and keeping a one-meter distance from the next person in public places.

“With the cooperation of the public, we can bring the records down again and prevent the spread of this menace,” Suarez said.

Quezon had logged 32,097 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic struck in March 2020, with 29,843 recoveries and 1,523 deaths.

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