Bacolod City – Despite the detection of the Delta variant in the city recently, Bacolod and the province of Negros Occidental have been classified by the Department of Health in Region 6 as “low risk areas” for Covid-19.
From the previous alert level 2, Negros Occidental slid to alert level 1 for having low and decreasing case transmissions, low healthcare utilization, and absence of the Delta variant of Covid, DOH-6 assistant director Helen Tobias said.
She said Bacolod has a similar situation, but because two of its residents tested positive for the Delta variant recently, the city’s alert level was downgraded to 2 from 3.
A 32-year-old pregnant woman and a 71-year-old businessman were tested to have Delta virus, although both are asymptomatic and have already recuperated.
At least 21 individuals who came in contact with them and their housemates, who yielded positive for Covid, were also tested while the two index patients were re-swabbed.
LOW GROWTH, ATTACK RATES
Records obtained from DOH-6 showed that the 2-week growth rate in cases in Bacolod and Negros Occidental decreased by 26.49 percent and 33.21 percent, respectively.
It added that the daily attack rate, or the number of confirmed cases for every 10,000 population in Negros Occidental, was 1.62 percent, and 5.69 percent in Bacolod, as of Thursday.
Bacolod and Negros Occidental also recorded the lowest healthcare facility utilization rates in Western Visayas in the last two weeks at 37.76 and 33.2 percent, respectively.
Tobias said that, based on these statistical data, the Covid situations in Bacolod and Negros Occidental are far better than the other areas in Western Visayas.
Basing on the data when cases of Covid in Bacolod increased in the last two months, Tobias said it is possible that the Delta variant had been in the city as early as June.
But she said that, based on the current situation manifesting a downward trend of cases in Bacolod and Negros Occidental, it is also not remote that the spread of the variant had been somehow contained.
Tobias also said that the aggressive vaccination rollout could have played a vital part in managing the Covid situation, especially in Bacolod.
She emphasized that Bacolod and Negros Occidental residents should not be complacent and should continue to abide by the mitigating measures being implemented by the city and the province despite the continued drop in Covid cases.
(Adrian Nemes via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)