Leyte mayor stops officiating marriage amid town spike of COVID-19 cases
TACLOBAN CITY-A town mayor in Leyte will not be performing any marriage ceremony as their area is grappling with high cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In an advisory, Mayor Azucena Mirambel will not officiate any civil marriages for the entire month. Under our laws, mayors are authorized to solemnize civil rites.
The municipal hall itself was closed starting Monday, Jan.18, until Jan.20 for disinfection as several employees were said to have been direct contacts of one employee who was earlier tested to be positive of the dreaded virus.
Among other measures instituted by the municipal government to curb its increasing COVID-19 cases include prohibition of masses and other religious gatherings and private gatherings until the contact tracing that is underway would be completed.
It was learned that the municipal government is tracing around 200 individuals.
At present, the town, which was placed under lockdown since Jan.16 which is to end on Jan.20, has 30 COVID-19 cases with one death involving a 75-year old man who died last Jan. 13.
The rural health unit in Capoocan, also in Leyte, was closed indefinitely since Monday (Jan.18) after one its employees was tested positive of COVID-19.
And since Jan.16, the rural health unit of Mayorga, also in Leyte, was shut down for disinfection and contact tracing after one of its health worker tested positive.
Meantime, the regional office of Department of Health reported of 24 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the region’s total cases to 12,931.
The region’s number of deaths has also increased to 16 with two new deaths.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
DA confirms ASF in Leyte
First case in entire Visayas Region
TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Agriculture (DA) has confirmed of existence of the African fever swine (ASF) here in the region, particularly in Abuyog town, Leyte.
And as an immediate effort to contain any further spread of the ASF to other villages of Abuyog and other areas in Leyte, their department immediately took action, Angel Enriquez, DA regional director, said in a statement.
The DA official said that this is the first case of ASF not only in Eastern Visayas but for the entire Visayas Region.
“Disease control measures in the ASF affected areas are currently being conducted. Moreover, three local veterinary quarantine checkpoints in the boundaries of Abuyog, Leyte are now in place,” Enriquez said.
These checkpoints are being manned by members of the Philippine National Police, Provincial Agriculture and Veterinary Office and by the local government unit.
Enriquez said that the ASF affected the villages of Can-aporong and Bunga wherein ‘unusual swine mortalities’ involving backyard farms were noticed during the latter part of December last year.
On Jan.6, their office conducted what Enriquez called ‘disease investigation’ and sample collection involving seven pigs.
Using ASF antigen detection rapid test, four of the samples yielded positive result based on the laboratory results.
And to ensure further if the positive result was accurate, the ASF serum samples were sent to the Animal Disease Diagnosis and Reference Laboratory of the Bureau Animal Industry, an attached DA agency, last Jan.11.
This yielded a positive result for ASF.
Their office immediately coordinated with the local government unit wherein it was agreed to right away implement disease control measures like depopulation and proper disposal of the affected hogs. Inventory of the hogs in the two affected villages and disease surveillance and sampling to include those from nearby barangays.
The local government unit also restricted the movements of swine and hogs beginning Jan.14 until Feb.15; culling or depopulation of swine should be imposed in the affected barangays, especially those located 500 meters radius from the infected swines and affected hog or swine raisers would be indemnify the amount of which have yet to be determined.
It is not yet clear how many hogs were affected by ASF and how they acquired the virus as the DA is still conducting further investigation which is somewhat hampered as Abuyog was placed under community quarantine due to its high cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which bars non-residents to enter the town.
Abuyog’s nearby towns, Javier and La Paz, have also instituted measures to ensure that their hog industry would not be affected by ASF.
Tacloban city government resumes clearing operations of road obstructions
TACLOBAN CITY-Personnel from the Traffic Operation, Management, Enforcement, and Control Office (TOMECO) and Tacloban Philippine National Police (PNP), in a joint operation, cleared some obstructions on roads and sidewalks along Maharlika Highway and at San Jose. The team also issued notices of violations and citation tickets to some violators, during the said operation.
The implementation of Road Clearing Operation 2.0 exempts parked ambulance and public emergency vehicles, checkpoints established by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, LGUs, the police and the military from being removed or apprehended. All LGUs implementing RCO 2.0 are expected to abide by the prescription of DILG MC 2020-027.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
DOH reports 13 deaths this week
Holiday season factor on the spike of COVID-19 cases
TACLOBAN CITY- At least 13 persons were reported by the Department of Health(DOH) this week to have died due to the complications caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the region.
And as the number of deaths due to COVID-19 complications rises in the region, its number of cases due to the deadly virus continue to spike as the DOH claims family gatherings and other activities relative to the Christmas and New Year celebrations as the culprit.
Of the 13 fatalities reported by the DOH this week, three of them were reported on Jan 12; five were logged on Jan.13 and four the following day, Jan.14.
One death was recorded by the DOH on Friday, Jan.15.
The Jan. 12 deaths involved a 71-year-old, male from Pinabacdao, Samar who died on January 10; a 60- year old woman from Guiuan, Eastern Samar who died on Jan. 4; and a 71-year old man from Baybay City who died on Jan.9.
On the other hand, the COVID-19 related deaths recorded on January 13 included a 31-year-old woman from Sta. Rita, Samar who died on Jan.10; an 86- year old woman from Tacloban City who died on Jan.8; a 38-year old woman from Mahaplag, Leyte who died on Jan.12, and a 60-year old woman from Naval, Biliran who died on Jan. 7 and a 75-year old woman Tarangnan, Samar who died on Jan. 10.
For Jan. 14 record, the deaths involved a 31-year-old woman from Borongan City who died on Jan. 10; a 78- year old woman from Carigara, Leyte who died on Jan. 11;a 64-year old male from Palo, Leyte who died on Jan. 11, and a 61-year old woman from Lawaan, Eastern Samar who died on Jan.12.
On Friday, the recorded lone death involved a 54- year old man from Capoocan, Leyte who died on Jan. 13.
With these 13 deaths reported by the DOH just this week, the total number of fatalities in Eastern Visayas now stand at 154.
Meantime, the region’s number of COVID-19 cases of the region is now at 12,653 of which 958 are considered as active cases.
Family gatherings and other social activities that took place during the holiday season contributed to the spike of COVID-19 cases here in the region, Dr. Marc Steven Capungcol, head of the DOH-8 epidemiology and surveillance unit, said in a virtual press conference Thursday (Jan. 14).
It was during this period that the region posted double digits of single day cases.
For instance, on December 23 and 24, the region logged its biggest single-day cases with 244 and 258, respectively.
On Christmas Day, the regional COVID-19 cases were 106 while on New Year’s Day, Jan.1, the cases were at 104.
“The increasing number of cases, partly were due to holiday season, family gatherings. Our cases right now involved families. So one of our conclusions because of the social and family gatherings (during the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations),” Capungcol said.
Aside from this reason, they also cited the big number of people who went to the shopping malls during the holiday season and the number of swab results being tested by the three molecular laboratories operating in the region, namely, the Eastern Visayas Regional COVID-19 Testing Center at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, the Divine Word Hospital Virology Laboratory, both in Tacloban City; and the Ormoc Molecular Diagnostic Center in Ormoc City.
As this developed, the DOH in the region has appealed to all local government units to expand their quarantine facilities to accommodate more possible COVID-19 patients, and capacitate their hospitals where the patients could be isolated.
“We are now in moderate to high risk of transmission in the region,” Capungcol said.
Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino, DOH regional officer-in-charge, said that the positivity rate of Eastern Visayas is among the highest in the country.
“The implication of having a high positivity rate means that we will have a high utilization of our hospitals which is dangerous because the capacity of our hospitals here in the region is very limited unlike in Metro Manila,” she said.
“It would mean that we might not have any available hospitals for our future COVID-19 cases in the coming days and which would result to increase on the number of deaths,” Sabalberino added.
The positivity rate of the region almost stand at 10 percent per the number of confirmed cases with those people who were tested as possible carriers of the dreaded virus.