CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Cagayan de Oro saw the most number of newly documented COVID-19 infections in Northern Mindanao, accounting for more than a third of the region’s active cases.

The city recorded 2,358 active COVID-19 cases, including 291 newly documented single-day infections on Monday, January 24. 

Data from the Department of Health (DOH), however, showed that of the 2,358 people who were still recuperating from the virus in the city, only 56 were confined in hospitals.

Bukidnon province ranked second with 1,471 active cases, including 137 new infections documented on Monday.

Misamis Oriental followed with 1,401 active cases, including 119 new infections on the same day. Only 19 of the 1,401 were admitted to hospitals.

DOH data showed Misamis Occidental province with 737 active and 42 new cases, Iligan City with 435 active and 50 new cases, Lanao del Norte with 163 active and 17 new cases, and Camiguin province with 53 active and four new cases as of Monday.

Regionwide, 144 of the 6,618 people still recuperating from COVID-19 were admitted to hospitals.

Data showed relatively low hospitalization rates in Misamis Occidental with 20 patients, Iligan with 27, and Lanao del Norte with 21. No one was admitted to a hospital in Camiguin due to COVID-19.

Dr. Teodoro Yu Jr., medical officer at the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, said he was seeing the number of COVID-19 cases in Northern Mindanao plateauing.

“Hopefully, this will continue,” Yu said.

Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno said data indicated that the rate of COVID-19 transmissions in the region in the last seven days – from January 17 to January 24 – slowed down.

Roughly 12 times from January 3 to January 10, and three times from January 10 to January 17, the number of cases in the region slid down twice, he said.

“It’s slowing down, but it’s still high. We’re still at the critical level,” said Moreno of the increase in infections in the region.

DOH logged 783 new cases in the region on Thursday, January 20, 888 on Friday, 581 on Saturday, 766 on Sunday, and 663 on Monday.

Northern Mindanao has so far logged 89,371 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Davao situation

In Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte said the city would likely see increases in COVID-19 cases until mid-March.

“Hopefully, it isn’t [the case], but that’s their [doctors’] forecast,” Duterte said. 

It was the second week of what she called the “4th surge” in Davao, and “we are quite far from the peak,” Duterte told the Davao City Disaster Radio on Monday.

She expressed alarm, saying the city has seen its public and private hospitals reaching full capacity, with health workers getting sick, too.

Duterte said the city has also seen 822 households locked down due to the recent COVID-19 infections, the highest so far in the city since the start of the pandemic.

The Davao region logged 8,037 active cases as of Sunday, and 32 COVID-19-related deaths from January 19 to January 21, 19 of which were recorded in Davao City. –Rappler.com

Grace Cantal-Albasin is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship