Cebu’s surging COVID-19 cases worrisome — OCTA Research

MANILA, Philippines — The rising incidence of COVID-19 cases in the whole Cebu province is a cause for serious concern despite downtrends in other areas in the country, OCTA Research Group said on Thursday.

In its report, the research group said that in the last seven days, the province is averaging 147 new COVID-19 cases per day, compared to 11 new cases from December 17-23, 2020.

This led to Cebu province having higher naught or reproduction number compared to the rest of the country.

“As the trends continue to be leveling off in NCR and many other parts of the country, including the northern provinces where cases of the UK B.1.1.7 variant were identified, the province of Cebu, including Cebu City, continued to have an increasing trend in new cases,” OCTA Research said.

“The reproduction number in Cebu province over the past week was 1.57, much higher than the reproduction number for the entire Philippines, which was 0.96.  Its positivity rate was at six percent even as PCR testing in the region increased by 10 percent to 2,400 tests per day,” it added.

OCTA Research, a group of academicians studying COVID-19 pandemic trends in the country, has clarified that Cebu is not yet on the level of a high-risk area.  But it also stressed that if left unaddressed, this could be a scenario for the whole province.

Last June 2020, Cebu City became the center of attention of the government’s pandemic response after it was observed that a high incidence was recorded in the southern city.  It prompted officials to put back the city under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) — the country’s strictest quarantine classification.

During Cebu’s ECQ status, the average number of new COVID-19 cases was around 400 per day, which OCTA Research said would be possible in two weeks if the government did not address the issue.  Also, the group considers the possibility of the much contagious UK variant spreading unknowingly in Cebu.

“This number could be reached in two weeks if trends are not reversed.  The concern right now is the possibility that the UK B.1.1.7 variant is spreading in parts of Cebu,” the researchers said.

READ: COVID-19 timeline in Cebu City 

Earlier, the Department of Health said that the country has a total of 518,407 confirmed COVID-19 cases after an additional 2,245 new infections were recorded.  Of the total count, 32,384 are patients with active cases, 475,542 have recovered, and 10,481 have died.

READ: Covid-19 cases now at 518,407 with 2,245 new infections 

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