Amid record-breaking daily COVID-19 cases
TACLOBAN CITY-The Regional Task Force against COVID-19(RIATF) and the Department of Health(DOH) has renewed its call before the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) to approve their recommendation to place the region under a stricter General Community Quarantine (GCQ) due to its successive record-breaking daily cases of the dreaded disease.
On Saturday (June 19), the DOH reported of 606 cases which increased further on Sunday (June 20) with 712 new cases, by far the highest recorded in the region since the pandemic started last year.
Currently, the total coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the region now stands at 27,247 with 2,815 considered as active cases.
Nine new deaths were also reported by the DOH on weekend with the oldest involving a 97-year-old woman who succumbed on June 10 with the youngest involving a 52-year-old man who died on June 8. Both were from the town of Burauen, Leyte.
“In response to this overwhelming spike of cases in the region, the DOH and the Regional Task Force against COVID-19 continues its recommendation to the NIATF to escalate the community quarantine classification of Eastern Visayas from Modified General Community Quarantine to General Community Quarantine,” the DOH said in a statement.
The continued increase of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the region was attributed by the DOH due to super spreader events like birthday parties, reunions and other gatherings that gathers big number of people.
“The fleeting joy and celebration that the public is hopeful about when they meet in social gatherings may cause a dreadful ending for others, especially the vulnerable groups,” the DOH said.
According to the DOH, with the surge of cases in the region, medical health facilities are now overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
At the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in Magsaysay Boulevard, this city, out of its 111 -bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, 86 are now occupied.
Likewise, almost all provincial hospitals and private hospitals in the region are also experiencing almost full capacities, the DOH said.
With the surge of COVID-19 cases, the DOH has called on the hospitals to also increase their COVID-19 bed capacities to accommodate more patients infected of the virus.
The DOH also reported that at least four hospitals in the region have ceased operations since June 18 due to high infection among its medical workers and staff.
These are the Felipe Abrigo Memorial Hospital and Saint Jude Hospital, both in Guiuan, Eastern Samar; Pintuyan District Hospital in Pintuyan, Southern Leyte; and the Kananga Municipal Hospital in Kananga town, Leyte.
