PANGASINAN DOWN TO SECOND

LA Union province has already overtaken Pangasinan in number of cases in the recent surge that was seen in Region 1.

This was confirmed by Dr. Rheuel Bobis, COVID-19 focal call person in Region 1, as he announced that the surge of COVID-19 cases in the region so far accounted for 27,544 cases, but maintained that there has been no evidence if the variants that have so far managed to enter the region were related to the renewed spike of COVID-19 cases nor was any new variant found.

San Fernando City was already listed as a high-risk area, prompting Mayor Dong Gualberto to ask for the rollout of vaccination of A-4 population or frontline personnel in essential sector, including uniformed personnel.

Based on the data showing that Pangasinan and the rest of Region 1 have registered spikes of COVID-19 cases recently, the regional office of the Department of Health- Center for Health Development stepped up its surveillance on variants that have so far entered the region to determine if these were instrumental in the new surge of the disease.

Last week, Bobis revealed at the Virtual Presser of PIA Region that there were three variants found in the region—the Alpha variant that originated from the United Kingdom, the Beta variant that came from South Africa and the Philippine-born Theta variant.

There were 43 persons, mostly Overseas Filipino Workers and returning Overseas Filipinos who were afflicted by the three COVID-19 variants but all have recovered, according to Bobis.

He said 378 new cases registered on July 4 alone were in La Union (135), Ilocos Sur (97), Pangasinan (79), Ilocos Norte (50) and in Dagupan City (7); 92,502 had recovered while 705 had died and the rest are still active cases confined in hospitals or LGU-operated community isolation centers.

The health care utilization rate in the whole of Region 1 to date is 53.84 percent, meaning more than 50 percent of beds dedicated for COVID-19 patients are already occupied:  Pangasinan (48.07%), La Union (68.44 %) and in Ilocos Sur (66.83%).

San Fernando City’s recent average daily attack rate of the disease was 24.7 per 100k population, and hospitals in that city are also close to filling up their beds.

Citing the precarious situation of La Union, the bed occupancy of the Ilocos Training Hospital and Medical Center alone, the biggest hospital in La Union, is 70%, said Bobis.

Based on Gualberto’s request to the regional Inter-Agency for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, San Fernando was reverted back from Modified General Community Quarantine to General Community Quarantine. (Leonardo Micua)

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