COVID-19 case drops by 45 percent — provincial IATF

By November 22, 2020Headlines, News, Punch Gallery

FROM A HIGH OF 450 IN OCTOBER

THE fight against COVID-19 in Pangasinan has shown it continues to gain headway after the province registered a significant drop in the number of active cases to 246 (as of November 16) from 450, its highest number of cases registered  last October.

This was revealed by Rhodyn Oro, chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO, and a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Oro told the virtual session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, that the significant drop in active COVID-19 also moved Region 1 to 13th (from 12th) among the regions with highest number of COVID-19 cases.

Since the start of the pandemic in mid-March this year, Pangasinan registered a total of 1,912 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, among the lowest in the entire country.

“Tarlac and Nueva Ecija now have higher number of cases than Pangasinan,” said Oro.

He attributed the drop in the number of active COVID-19 cases to the coordination and collaboration of barangays with the provincial government.

Responding to Fourth District Bard Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario’s question, Oro said the four-day mass testing recently conducted on 1,506 individuals yielded only 10 tested positive for COVID-19.

Since the start of the pandemic, 13,983 individuals were already tested, with a positivity rate of only 1.15 percent.

He added that all the towns and cities have their established isolation and quarantine facilities with combined capacity of 2,100 in addition to the  DOH-standard isolation units built by the Department of Public Works and Highways at the Provincial Reformation Center in Burgos and at the provincial nursery in Sta. Barbara.

Another isolation facility to be funded by DOH is being considered to be established in another town.

Oro added that that mental health program is integrated among the programs under the provincial IATF, as he stressed the need for psychological intervention for people locked down in their homes for a long time.

The provincial IATF has begun a series of trainings for psychological first aiders in the various departments of the province. (Leonardo Micua)

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