The Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) in this city is implementing an “aggressive” approach to curb the local transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the next two weeks.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical data and analysis, said on Tuesday that Mayor Evelio Leonardia ordered the strengthening of prevention, detection, treatment, isolation and reintegration (PDTIR) efforts to continuously reduce the number of cases.
“In the next 14 days, we will be instituting an aggressive implementation of the PDTIR strategy,” Sorongon said in a radio interview.
Although the city’s numbers are still erratic, he said that the EOC sees a declining trend in the number of new infections a few days after the OCTA Research Group tagged Bacolod as an “area of concern” outside Metro Manila.
In its May 8 report, OCTA noted that the city logged a 19 percent daily average increase rate from May 1 to 7.
Sorongon pointed out that the figure is already declining, particularly the new cases, citing the data from the Department of Health-Western Visayas.
On May 8, Bacolod logged 37 additional cases; May 9 – 43; and May 10 – 23.
“OCTA’s data is a bit late as ours is already declining, but we are appreciative of the research group’s efforts because what we are seeing also tells us how to interpret it and helps us in the analysis of our cases,” Sorongon said.
He added that the OCTA’s recent report is not a cause for alarm, but there is still a need to remain vigilant.
“For the past two 14-day cycles, we have been implementing a lot of mitigating measures,” he said.
Sorongon said the city government started strengthening its prevention measures since the Holy Week by asking for the closure of all resorts on Easter Sunday.
The mayor has also been conducting virtual meetings with various sectoral groups, informing them of the vaccination program and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus, he added.
Personnel of Bacolod City Police Office and Metro Bacolod District Jail Management and Penology were also asked to under surveillance testing.
“All close contacts are being swabbed and targeted surveillance testing continues,” Sorongon said, adding that more isolation facilities, including those in schools and hotels, have been opened aside from the existing midway referral facilities.
Sorongon said that contact tracers are working 24/7 especially in extracting COVID-19 positive patients as the city implements the “no home isolation” protocol.
“We became complacent, we have to admit it. We have minimal cases in December, January and February so residents roamed around. When the cases suddenly spiked, there’s also a fewer number of people moving around,” he added.
As of May 10, Bacolod has a total of 8,042 cases, of which 946 are active, with 6,875 recoveries and 221 deaths.PNA
