COVID-19

Dumaguete is area of ‘most serious concern’ outside ‘NCR Plus’ – Octa

Robbin M. Dagle

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Dumaguete is area of ‘most serious concern’ outside ‘NCR Plus’ – Octa

CORONAVIRUS. Mayor Felipe Remollo of Dumaguete City himself tested positive for COVID-19 on May 23, 2021.

File photo from Dumaguete City government

Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Remollo says Negros Oriental's decision to relax travel restrictions in March – prompted by national guidelines – could have contributed to the city's COVID-19 surge

Dumaguete City, capital of Negros Oriental, is now the area of “most serious concern” for COVID-19 outside “NCR Plus,” according to a report by the Octa Research group.

Citing Department of Health (DOH) figures from June 7 to 13, Dumaguete had a 129% one-week growth rate in new COVID-19 cases and an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 69.85 per 100,000, which puts the city at “extremely high risk.”

ADAR is the average number of daily infections in an area over the past two weeks, divided by its population. According to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), an ADAR of more than 7 is already indicates “critical risk.”

Dumaguete City had 638 active cases based on the province’s June 11 report, while the City IATF recorded 495 active cases as of Sunday, June 13. “Of the 495 active COVID-19 cases, 41 are admitted in the hospitals while the rest of the active cases are handled by the City Health Office in the various isolation facilities,” the City IATF’s statement read.

According to the provincial government’s June 11 report, three major hospitals in Metro Dumaguete – Negros Oriental Provicial Hospital, Holy Child Hospital, and Negros Polymedic in neighboring Sibulan town – have reached full capacity in their COVID-19 beds, while Silliman University Medical Center is at 91% and ACE Doctors Dumaguete at 70%. 

However, local paper Negros Chronicle reported that in total, the city’s five major hospitals have more than 200 COVID patients waiting for beds as of last Monday, June 7. 

Possible reasons

In an interview with Teleradyo on Monday, Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Remollo, who tested positive for COVID on May 23, said that the province’s decision to relax travel restrictions in March could have contributed to the city’s surge.

Negros Oriental’s decision was prompted by the national IATF’s relaxation of domestic travel guidelines last February, which removed mandatory quarantine and left LGUs with the discretion to require RT-PCR tests.

Natandaan nyo nag-spike NCR Plus two months ago. During that time, untimely, lumuwag din ang probinsiya namin, meaning yung travel protocols requiring RT-PCR tests for all travelers ni-lift ng gobyerno,” Remollo said.

(If you can recall, COVID-19 cases spiked in NCR Plus about two months ago. And then that time, I can say that in an untimely manner, our province also relaxed restrictions, meaning travel protocols requiring RT-PCR tests for all travelers were lifted by the government.)

Remollo bucked Governor Roel Degamo’s decision to scrap the negative RT-PCR test requirement last March, requiring Dumaguete inbound travelers to secure a “certificate of acceptance” which they will get after submitting a negative test result.

Degamo eventually brought back the swab test requirement for the rest of the province last April, citing rising COVID-19 cases in the province.

New recommendation

Amid the continuing surge, the Dumaguete City Council passed a resolution on Wednesday, June 9, urging the City IATF to recommend reimposing a stricter quarantine status to the governor. In a statement released Saturday, June 12, Vice Mayor Karissa Tolentino-Maxino said that this entails including the whole of Negros Oriental, as Dumaguete City is still a component city of the province.

This is more than two weeks after the Negros Oriental Medical Society and the Philippine College of Physicians-Negros Oriental Chapter urged the government to place Negros Oriental under enhanced community quarantine for two to three weeks to prevent the “collapse” of the healthcare system.

Dumaguete and the whole province of Negros Oriental have been under modified general community quarantine – the most relaxed classification – since July 2020.

However, in a press briefing on Monday, June 14, Degamo said he is not keen on placing the whole province under a total lockdown. He instead proposed a granular lockdown of specific areas in Dumaguete City for 10 days, the period he says is recommended by experts.

“That is why we are recommending for a granular lockdown because we cannot afford for now, we cannot afford for a total lockdown in the whole province of Negros Oriental, unless otherwise the national government will help us. Granular lockdown is the best, for now, the best solution in order that we will address the containment of the virus, and the economy of our city and province,” Degamo said.

But Degamo said that the province is prepared to help Dumaguete City in giving aid to residents who will be affected by the granular lockdown. 

Negros Oriental has the most number of active COVID cases in Central Visayas at 3,134, according to data from the DOH regional office released June 13. – Rappler.com

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