Davao City – The Davao City government has noted a decline in deaths related to coronavirus disease and maintains a death rate of 4.72 per cent for the past weeks.
Speaking over Davao City Disaster Radio 87.5 FM Covid-19 Alert Program on Wednesday, City Health Officer Dr. Ashley G. Lopez said that one of the significant improvements in the city’s Covid-19 data is the decrease of deaths related to coronavirus disease.
Lopez said that the current flow of mortality data at most is zero or one to two deaths in some days.
Lopez said that an important factor in controlling Covid-19-related deaths is the low hospitalization rate of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), which only admits critical or severe Covid-19 patients.
“Since the beginning of February, ato gyud napaubsan ang deaths – and atong fatality rate. It’s because medyo na loosen up nato ang utilization rate sa SPMC in particular, wherein sa karon na mga panahon naa gyud sila sa low hospital utilization rate which is below 50 percent,” he said.
He said that the city has also maintained its daily average Covid-19 cases without facing a surge so far, although there is no significant decrease in cases.
“Fortunately, in general, na-maintain nato ang cases. Wala man gyud nga nisaka og maayo, pero wala pud remarkable na decrease akong nakit an. So, na-maintain nato tong daily average cases,” Lopez said.
Lopez attributed this to the strict implementation of all anti-Covid directives of Mayor Inday Sara Duterte such as Executive Order (EO) 18 on intensifying surveillance on influenza-like illness. On April 6, she also ordered for the mandatory RT-PCR testing of all F1, F2, and F3 contacts of confirmed positive cases. And recently, the city has created a drive-thru swabbing center for public ground transport and delivery services in Davao City.
Despite the significant results in the city’s response against coronavirus transmission, Lopez said the city government will not stop its efforts, especially in intensifying contact tracing and surveillance swabbing as long as there is a Covid-19 case in the city.
As of 6:00 PM of May 4, Davao City has 15 new cases. The city now has 356 total active cases. Since March last year, Davao City already has 14,620 cases, wherein 13,573 have recovered. This is 92.8 percent of the total Covid-19 cases. (City Information Office | Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao OIC)