Tarlac logs record-high 17 COVID-19 deaths

Police officers guard one of Tarlac’s entry points along Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. (Photo from the Tarlac Police Provincial Office)

MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga – The province of Tarlac registered 17 COVID-19 fatalities, its highest death toll so far, local health data showed on Sunday, Sept. 12.

In its latest bulletin, the provincial government also registered 278 new infections, its second-highest single-day infections.

Tarlac’s highest single-day tally was recorded on Sept. 7 this year at 283.

As of Saturday, the active COVID-19 cases in the province stood at 2,400.

The youngest among the latest fatalities was a 42-year-old man from Gerona town, while the oldest was a 98-year-old woman from Anao town.

The 15 other patients who succumbed to the viral disease were from the towns of Bamban, Camiling, Concepcion, Anao and Gerona.

On Sept. 10, Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap directed all mayors in the province to strictly enforce border control rules as a mitigating measure against the spread of COVID-19.

“All local chief executives of the Province of Tarlac are mandated to be more strict in guarding provincial border control points to be manned by members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and representatives of the local IATF,” she said in a resolution issued by the local inter-agency task force on COVID-19.

The provincial government requires travelers from enhanced community quarantine and modified enhanced community quarantine areas to present valid vaccination cards or current negative results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test or antigen swab test before they are allowed entry into the province.

Since the pandemic broke out last year, Tarlac has registered a total of 13,727 COVID-19 cases, of which 10,849 have recovered while 478 have died.