A surge in Covid 19 cases in Region 1was recorded with 195 cases last week, averaging 18 cases per day, compared to just eight cases per day three weeks ago.

This was confirmed by Dr. Rheuel Bobis, COVID-19 focal person in Region, adding that Pangasinan, accounted for 74 cases while Dagupan reported 18 cases.

Speaking during the Virtual Presser of the Philippine Information Agency on Thursday  (July 7), Bobis said that on July 6 alone, 26 cases were logged in the region, 12 in Pangasinan, 11 in La Union, 2 in Dagupan and one in Ilocos Norte.

Of the total 119,074 Covid cases so far registered in Region 1, Pangasinan still tops the list with 38,939 cases while Dagupan logged 6,585.

The region’s recovery rate is 96.99 percent while the case fatality rate is 2.55 percent.

Bobis showed data that cases first surged in September last year because of the Delta variant but later slowly tapered down. The cases rose again in January because of the Omicron variant, but slowed down in the months following and further went down in May and early part of June.

He said during the latter part of May up to the first part of June, there was only an average of three cases per day in the region. But in the early part of July, the cases averaged more than 10 cases per day.

Further, the region’s positivity rate as of July 6 was 5.1 percent, slightly higher than the recommended positivity rate of 5.0 percent.

He added that Region 1 is still under safe zone in the health care utilization rate.

Meanwhile, Bobis attributed the latest surge of Covid cases not because of the new Covid variant detected in the region but because people had become complacent and were no longer complying with the standard health protocol, i.e., wearing of face masks, observance of social distancing and washing of hands.

He said vaccination should be accelerated in towns and cities to increase the imnunity rate in the region. (Leonardo Micua) 

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