With five straight day with no deaths, the worst appears to have been over during the 18-month Covid-19 pandemic as numbers have dwindled the past month, the lowest since Alpha variant struck in April, but total deaths remain a concern which is higher than “the calm” that was during the June to August period.
November statistics show that there were 51 deaths, slightly lower than the May total of 55, but higher than June (19), July (25) and August (35).
The peak was last October when there were 178 recorded due to Covid-19 which is higher than the 148 logged during the height of the Delta variant when 7,073 cases was reported on September topped by the 411 cases on September 18.
October saw many of those infected during the September surge recovered. There were 8,441 patients cleared of the virus on said month as compared to the 3,452 recoveries on September.
September was literally toxic, a term by medical workers referring to large number of patients, for local doctors as hospitals and isolation centers were filled to the rafters.
The month opened with a “measly” 904 confined patients which swelled to 4,526 by September 29 when new cases were more than double the recoveries, an average of nearly 236 new cases a day against a recovery of about 115 a day.
Infections continued during the first 10 days of October when active cases peaked at 4,686 and from there a steady decline was charted as October 11, when typhoon Marin struck, only 88 new cases were logged.
Doctors were the happiest on October 14 when 860 patients were discharged which was followed by 837 the next day or a two day total of 1,697 that is more than the total new cases of June which is 1,664.
By the third week of October the city logged double digit new cases, while most recoveries were mostly in the three digit area that by the end of the month, there were only 443 active cases.
On November 19, the city logged its lowest number of new cases at seven, which went up to 12 the next day followed by seven the next two days, increased to 11 on November 23, then down to five the next day. The three days from November 25-27 saw double digits of 14, 18 and 15 then back to a single digit on the 28th at 8, then the lowest ever since April at one on the 29th.
But November ended with 25 new cases.
November 29 was a benchmark with only one new case, recoveries of 11 that brings the active cases to only 84, the lowest so far since the April surge. The best news was the zero death that will start a five day trend of no casualty.
The first three days of December saw a total of 16 new cases – 3, 8, 5 new per day in that order and against a recovery of 33 on numbers of 12, 11 and 10, in that order.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong credits the downtrend to the strict observance of the minimum health protocol including wearing of face masks, social distancing, frequent washing of hands and the avoidance of crowd.
Moreover, the city has speed up its inoculation. As of December 3, 236,138 residents have already been fully vaxed, while a total of 275,099 residents, including 27,431 of the pediatric population have been jabbed of which 14,125 have completed their inoculation.
There are also 7,537 residents whi have already been administered with their booster shots.
However, he warned locals not to be complacent especially because of a deadlier and more contagious variant lurking – Omicron.
Magalong said earlier: “Even if our cases had gone down to single digits, we still regard the actual number as twicethe reported one because there are still cases that are unreported. Moreover, we continue to receive reports on Delta variant cases so we cannot relax, instead, we remain to be very vigilant.”
