The City Health Services Office (CHSO) disclosed that some thirty-one barangays in the city remain to be free from the wrath of the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (Covid) 2019 as of 25 August 2020.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo, on the other hand, stated that some 97 barangays were able to report one or more Covid-19 cases because of the ongoing aggressive contact tracing and expanded testing.
She added that 52 percent of the total number of Covid-19 cases in the city are females while 48 percent are males.
Based on the CHSO’s weekly report, the age bracket of most of the city’s Covid-19 patients fall under the 20-29 years old and the 30-39 years old bracket.
In terms of severity of the virus, 65 percent of the patients are asymptomatic, 26 percent are with mild symptoms, 6 percent are with moderate symptoms and 3 percent are severe.
43 percent of the cases was a result of contact tracing, 35 percent was a product of the city’s expanded testing, 19 percent of the patients are symptomatic and 3 percent came from other modes.
Among the affected sectors with reported Covid-19 cases include the general public, essential services, health care workers, other workers, bank employees, uniformed personnel, government employees, and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
Further, 74 percent of the patients have no co-morbid conditions while 26 percent declared having co-morbid conditions that need close medical supervision from the health facilities.
Galpo disclosed that the co-morbid conditions of the patients include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, asthma, pregnancy, cancer, cardio-vascular disease, cute bronchitis, allergic rhinitis, anxiety disorder, arthritis, bell’s palsy, cataract and community acquired pneumonia.
At the same time, the CHSO head reported that there were 52 identified clustering of the deadly virus in the city that included households, banks, health facility, market, government offices, groceries, church and even birthday parties.
She claimed that the city was able to perform some 35,000 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and 9,082 rapid tests were conducted in the city over the past several months.
As of August 24, 2020, she stated that the city has still some 20,400 RT-PCR test kits that is currently being used in the local government’s aggressive expanded testing among the identified vulnerable sectors and their close contacts to ensure that probable and suspected Covid-19 patients will be traced and isolated to prevent them from spreading the deadly virus among their close contacts.
Galpo asserted that the city continues to embrace a 4-pronged approach in preventing the spread of the virus in the city that focuses on contact tracing, testing, isolation and quarantine and treatment. (Dexter A. See)