MANILA – Five cities and the province of Cebu are under close monitoring after recording an increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the past week, a Department of Health official said Monday.
"For now tinututukan natin nang maigi, we're monitoring Cebu City, of course, alam na natin iyan, 'yung buong probinsya ng (For now, we're focusing on, we're monitoring Cebu City, of course, we already know that, the whole province of) Cebu also, Lapu-Lapu City, Quezon City, Mandaue City and the City of Manila," DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media forum.
The cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu are in Cebu province while the cities of Manila and Quezon are in the National Capital Region (NCR).
"So these are the top six that we're looking at, that for this past week, logged many cases. But of course, there are still other areas that we're strictly monitoring because before they don't have cases but now they already have cases," Vergeire added.
Latest data from the department on case breakdown by region show that the NCR has the highest count of cases at 20,100 with 7,167 recoveries, 865 deaths and 4.3 percent case fatality rate.
The NCR is followed by Region 7 (Central Visayas), where Cebu province is included, at 8,637 cases, with 1,158 recoveries, 154 deaths and 1.8 percent case fatality rate.
Region 12 (Soccsksargen) has the least number of cases at 69 with 26 recoveries, one death and 1.4 percent case fatality rate.
The department has warned that as community quarantine measures ease, the rise in Covid-19 infections may be attributed to the increased contact among persons.
The scenario is starting to play out as more have been affected by the virus. The country recorded on July 5 the highest number of cases in a day at 2,434, raising the overall tally to 44,254.
The DOH said 1,287 of the additional cases are "late" or results belatedly reported and were only verified recently, while 1,147 are "fresh cases" or results released to the patient within the past three days.
Of the fresh cases, 440 are from the NCR, 364 are from Region 7, 336 from other regions, and seven are repatriates. (PNA)
