TACLOBAN CITY-A town in Leyte province posted its first case of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) as the regional office Department of Health (DOH) reported of three new cases, raising the regional total to 614.
The town of Mahaplag posted its first COVID-19 case involving a 26-year old man locally stranded individual(LSI) who arrived from Cebu City, town Mayor Daisy Lleve said.
She, however, assured her people that the patient is asymptomatic and is now at their isolation facility.
“Authorities are now conducting contact tracing. I am appealing to the public to stay calm and follow strict implementation of protocols and most of all, lets pray together for protection and for us to overcome this pandemic crisis,” Lleve said in a statement.
The other areas which posted new COVID-19 cases were the town of La Paz in Leyte province involving a 28-year old man and Libangon town, Southern Leyte province involving a 28-year old man. Both are LSIs who came from Cebu.
Prior to its first confirmed COVID-19 case, Mahaplag was one of the eight municipalities in Leyte which were free from the dreaded virus.
The remaining towns in the province, which has more than 250 COVID-19 cases, which remains without a single case of the coronavirus are Tunga, Mayorga, MacArthur, Inopacan, San Isidro and Merida.
Leyte has 40 towns and the cities of Ormoc, Baybay, and Tacloban.
Meantime, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez also announced that the city has now ‘zero case’ of COVID-19.
All of the city’s 58 COVID-19 cases have recovered from the virus, its city health office announced earlier.
Still, Mayor Romualdez said that Taclobanons should remain vigilant and strictly follow all the health protocols like the wearing of mask and observe social distancing to ensure that the city would remain COVID-19 free.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/JOEY A. GABIETA)
Leyte town posted 1st COVID-19 case involving an LSI from Cebu
Quarantine bars Popcom to distribute over 500,000 pills and condoms in the region
TACLOBAN CITY-More than 500,000 condoms and pills remain undistributed by the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) here in the region due to the quarantine.
This was disclosed by Elnora Pulma, Popcom regional director, who said that these commodities need to be distributed as this could impact on their family planning program and services.
It was learned that due to the quarantine, which restricts their movements, the Popcom in the region has still 500,000 pills and 77,600 condoms that need to be distributed to their ‘acceptors’ or those who have availed of their family planning program or services.
Pulma said that they are alarmed that if these commodities would not be distributed, this could not only lead to what they described as ‘unplanned pregnancies’ but would also result to the decline on the number of their acceptors.
As of May of this year, there are 1,751 acceptors of pills, injectables, and condoms across the region.
Due to the quarantine, which took effect March of this year and said to be in effect until July 15 of this year, Popcom is projecting an increase of pregnancies and births.
Eastern Visayas has more than 4.4 million population with a birth rate of 1.9 percent.
In Leyte alone, 36,000 new babies are expected this year, Dr. Edgardo Daya, chief of Leyte Provincial Hospital.
Pulma said that they hope that the quarantine would be lifted soon so they could start the distribution of these commodities to various hospitals and rural health centers as well as private clinics.
She added that at least in the case in Leyte, they can distribute these items through the assistance of the Provincial Health Office and through a ‘border-to-border’ distribution, of each town or city in the province.
Popcom has earlier distributed to Leyte at least 90,000 of condoms.
“We have tried to ask the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) to allow us to distribute these commodities to our acceptors but our request was turned down considering that there is a spike of COVID-19 cases here in our region,” Pulma said during a press conference on Thursday marking this week’s World Population Day to be held on July 11.
OCD is part of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19.
Eastern Visayas was tagged by the Department of Health earlier as an ‘emerging COVID-19 hot spot’ due to its increasing number of coronavirus disease 2019. At present it has 611 COVID-19 cases with three deaths.
(JOEY A. GABIETA/ROEL T. AMAZONA)
DOH: 498 patients recover from COVID-19
Quarantine, lockdown enforcement cited among factors
TACLOBAN CITY- The number of recoveries from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continued to increase in Eastern Visayas, with 12 recoveries as of Friday,(July 10),bringing the total number of recovered cases to 498 or 81.11% while the total number of confirmed cases now at 614.
In Tacloban City alone, the City Health Office reported that it has already discharged its remaining COVID-19 active case on Wednesday afternoon.
The city had 58 COVID-19 cases.
The region has three fatalities due to COVID-19 coming from the towns of Tarangan, Samar; Kananga, Leyte; and Kawayan in Biliran.
Dr. Minerva Molon, regional director of Department of Health (DOH), said 98 health workers who recovered from the coronavirus are already back to their work.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) has only one remaining healthcare worker confirmed with COVID-19, according to Molon.
“The patient is asymptomatic and still isolated. We still have health workers assigned in the field who have been tested with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic and still isolated. All DOH employees confirmed with Covid-19 have already recovered,” Molon said during a virtual presser on Thursday (July 9).
She added that the region was able to control the community transmission of COVID-19.
“This can be attributed to the coordinated efforts of all sectors of the community especially the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force and Regional Task Force. The early implementation of lockdown and the immediate isolation/quarantine of returning residents have greatly reduced the transmission of the infections,” Molon said.
The health official also urged the local government units with locally acquired cases to “intensify contact tracing to prevent further community transmission.”
“Municipalities like Tarangnan (Samar), La Paz, Burauen, and Hilongos, Leyte have no recorded local cases and the previous declaration of having a local transmission can now be lifted,” Molon said.
“For a province, municipality, or city to declare their area as ‘COVID-19 free’, one must have no recorded new Covid-19 cases for the past two incubation period or 28 days,” she added.
The DOH counts 14-days for the incubation period of the virus.
Meantime, the so-called locally stranded individuals (LSIs) continue to log the most number infected with the virus.
Out of the current 614 COVID-19 cases of the region, 397 of them are LSIs while the rest were locally acquired (160); returning overseas workers (52); and beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsiya program, 3.
BY: RONALD O. REYES/LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA