Active COVID-19 cases in Calabarzon jump to 519

LUCENA CITY — The number of active COVID-19 cases in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region jumped to 519 on Saturday, June 15, from only 113 at the start of the month.

The latest data from the Health Education and Promotion Unit of the Department of Health (DOH) – Calabarzon showed that 64 new cases were recorded on June 25 at 3 p.m.

Health authorities also recorded that 14 patients have recovered while no fatality was listed.

The highest new cases daily tally this month was 87 on June 23 and the lowest on June 12 with only 3 cases.

The DOH-Calabarzon has already recorded 1,120 COVID-19 cases so far this month, 798 in May, and 1,624 in April.

Cavite topped the list with 167 active cases followed by Batangas with 145; Laguna with 105; Rizal with 89; Quezon with 10; and Lucena City with three.

The regional health authorities did not provide information on the COVID-19 variants of the present active cases in the region.

But the DOH central office on Wednesday reported that Calabarzon has four Omicron BA.5 subvariant cases, which is said to be more contagious than its other versions.

In January this year, the Omicron variant brought the Philippines its highest number of coronavirus cases, reaching over 39,000 due to its high rate of transmission.

As of June 25, the Calabarzon region recorded 500,207 COVID-19 cases, 486,209 recoveries, and 13,479 deaths since the pandemic broke out in 2020.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases placed the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal under alert level 1, the most lenient in the five-tier alert status until June 30.

The task force also placed Lucena City, classified as a highly urbanized city in Quezon, and 14 other municipalities in the province under alert level 1.

The rest of Quezon’s 26 localities will remain under alert level 2.

READ: DOH confirms Delta variant in NCR, Calabarzon as COVID-19 cases reach 18,332