A health official in Negros Oriental has expressed concern over the slowly rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the province, noting that it had zero occurrences two months ago.
Four of the six cities in Negros Oriental are among the areas with a low vaccination rate against the Covid-19, thus contributing to the province not being eligible for downgrading to Alert Level 1.
Assistant Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Liland Estacion, on Friday said these cities are Guihulngan, Bayawan, Tanjay, and Bais. The municipalities of Santa Catalina and Siaton also have low vaccination accomplishments.
Estacion did not give exact figures yet pending the collating of reports from these local government units (LGUs).
“Now we have six new positive cases and this is the highest so far since a few months ago,” she said in mixed English and Cebuano.
Except for this capital city, and the towns of Bacong, Amlan, Zamboanguita, Dauin, and Valencia, which are all under Alert Level 1 now, the rest of the province or 19 LGUs still remain under Alert Level 2.
Those under Alert Level 1 have already reached or gone beyond their 70 percent target population for vaccination.
Estacion said they are now doubling their efforts in all of the towns and cities to reach out to as many individuals for vaccination.
As of June 9, the province has a total caseload of 23,557, broken down into 22,810 recoveries, 742 mortalities, and six active cases.
Meanwhile, Estacion said the province has reached a 57.4 percent vaccination rollout rate, representing 659,908 individuals having been fully vaccinated over the adjusted target population of 1,148,424.
“We are now looking for the 42.6 percent unvaccinated, or what we call the zero dose individuals, who have never received the vaccines,” she said.
She called on the people to avail themselves of the free vaccines against Covid-19 so that the province can reach its target and can be downgraded to Alert Level 1.
Source: Philippines News Agency
