MANILA - Health authorities continue to monitor the increasing COVID-19 cases in Eastern Visayas after the region recorded its highest number of infections on Thursday.

“We have a total of 23,800 cases and we recorded our first all-time high last Thursday with 572 new cases. We are closely monitoring the situation in the region and in the past 2 weeks, there is an increase in cases in the region pero not as high as we had last Thursday,” said Dr. Exuperia Sabalberino, OIC Regional Director of the Department of Health Eastern Visayas Center for Health and Development.

Sabalberino said contact tracing showed that the spike in cases is mostly due to mass gatherings.

“From the reports that we got from our contact tracing teams, most of our cases nakukuha sa mga social gatherings pa,” she said.

The region is now under a general community quarantine but with granular lockdowns in some municipalities with spike in COVID-19 cases.

“In our discussions with governors, we are trying to balance economy and health issues in the region. While generally the provinces are on GCQ, meron naman tayong local government units na naka-granular lockdown,” she said.

LGUs have also agreed to intensify the implementation of the minimum health protocols to prevent further spread of the virus.

“Merong mga activities that are now discouraged like parties, mga other social events that will result to crowding of people,” she said.

(There are activities that are now discouraged like parties, other social events that will result to crowding of people.)

Sabalberino said the region’s critical care utilization three days ago was at 78 percent but this has already decreased. However, they continue to be faced with the challenge of personnel shortage, she said.

“Meron kaming medical reserved force from the unformed personnel yun ang itatop namin to help us augment the manpower in our health facilities,” she said.

(We are tapping the medical reserved force from the uniformed personnel to help us augment the manpower in our health faclitites.)

- TeleRadyo 11 June 2021