LSIs push Covid cases up – DoH

MAJORITY of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in Negros Occidental were attributed to locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and other inbound travellers that were heading home from different parts of the country, the Department of Health (DoH) said.

DoH Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the increase in provincial cases was due to homeward-bound LSI’s in the past weeks.

“When we checked the data, we verified that those who went back to their own areas [such as the provinces] have caused the increase,” Vergeire said in Filipino in a press briefing on Friday.

She said the National Task Force Covid-19 (NTF), headed by Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., has already gone to the province to check the hospital facilities in the region.

Vergeire added that putting Bacolod City back under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was not the only solution to control the number of cases in the city.

Consequently, Galvez disapproved the request of Bacolod City doctors for President Rodrigo Duterte to put the city under ECQ due to the rising number of cases.

Bacolod remains under a modified general community quarantine, which is equivalent to unrestrained, pre-Covid activities for all.

“Community quarantine is not the only intervention for Covid-19… It is not for a specific period that cases would reduce…even experts are saying that we cannot stay in lockdown forever,” followed up Vergeire.

She said that the NTF has already formed a one-hospital-command-center system for hospitals in Bacolod and has already strengthened local temporary quarantine facilities to decongest hospitals and fix the city’s quick response strategies.

Meanwhile, 12 medical personnel from Cebu, consisting of two doctors, six nurses and four medics, have arrived in Bacolod City to help private hospitals with the high number of Covid-19 cases while 10 nurses hired by DoH Central Visayas will also be redeployed in hospitals in Iloilo and Bacolod starting September 1.

Source: TheManila Times