Active cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Iloilo City have ballooned to more than 4,000.
The Department of Health (DOH-6) reported 342 new infections in the city on Monday, Jan. 24, bringing the total active case count to 4,395.
The city, which is currently under Alert Level 3, has the highest active cases in Western Visayas.
Iloilo province came in second with 2,631 active cases, followed by Negros Occidental (2,298), Bacolod City (1,967) Aklan (1,831), Antique (1, 253), Capiz 1,222, and Guimaras (108).
All in all, active cases in the region stand at 15,715.
“I am very sad that while we have done our best to ramp up the vaccination and boosters for everyone, cases continued to go up and our health care utilization rate (HCUR) is also going up,” said Jerry Treñas.
“The health care utilization rate is the number of COVID-19 rooms and ICU beds which are presently occupied by patients,” he explained
According to the mayor, the city is “now in the brink of being placed under Alert Level 4 because of our HCUR of over 70% in the past several days.”
“While 50% of the patients come from other provinces, still the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) looks upon our HCUR as a determining factor for the alert levels,” said Treñas.
“Let us all stay at home if it is possible so that we reduce the chances of transmission,” he appealed.IMT
