Central Visayas, Cebu City on the road to achieving ‘herd immunity’ from COVD-19

 CEBU CITY – Central Visayas and Cebu City may have flattened the curve and on the road to achieving ‘herd immunity’ from COVID-19 because most of the tools implemented here have significantly brought down the number of COVID-19 cases daily for the last three weeks and the last six months, according to Dr. Jaime Bernadas, regional director of Department of Health (DOH-7) during the Mugstoria Ta virtual live press briefing Monday hosted by Asst. Secretary Jonjie Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV).

 Bernadas said that the COVID-19 situation in Central Visayas has really improved a lot, from being the hotspot to now as being better managed pandemic in the entire country, “if not the best.”  

 As of October 12, he bared that the total number of COVID-19 cases in Central Visayas is at 22,671 with a total recovery of 20,309 and with active cases at 1,008.  “It means we are already on the verge of going down to almost less than a thousand cases and on a downward trend which is a welcome development and hopefully this trend continues,” Bernadas added.

“Once tag as the epicenter of COVID-19, Cebu City has significantly brought down its COVID-19 cases daily, from 13 deaths per day three weeks ago to zero deaths as of October 12.  Today, 41 of 80 barangays in the City have zero COVID-19 cases for the last 14 days,” according to Cebu City councilor Joel Garganera who is also the deputy implementor of the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for COVID-19.

Garganera on the other hand revealed that for the last two-three weeks now, Cebu City is enjoying this little success because for the last few days COVID-19 cases in the City has been on a one digit to zero cases, which is a far cry from three months ago with three to four cases per day.

“By June, we had the most number deaths at 370; by July we had 180 deaths; August with 22, September with 17 deaths and for the first 10 days of October, no reported deaths,” Garganera said.

 According to Bernadas that as far as the statistics are concerned from end of July to October 12, the number of COVID-19 cases has been decreasing significantly and at the start of September COVID-19 curve has already flattened for nearly six weeks now and for the past six months.

 Bernadas highlighted the continued massive testing, contact tracing and strict implementation of health protocols and the coordinated efforts of the government and the private sector as the key factors in the successful management of the COVID-19 crisis here.   However, both Bernadas and Garganera agreed that this should not be reason enough to be complacent.

“Remember that as long as there is COVID-19 and no vaccine at hand, everything is still fragile and anything can still happen, let us remain vigilant in our daily activities,” Bernadas added.

Road to achieving “herd immunity” from COVID-19 is at hand, according to Bernadas citing the COVID-19 situation management of the Carbon Market area in Cebu City which is considered as the hub of daily interaction and convergence of people, coming in and out of one place.

Bernadas went on that out of the 2,191 tested in Carbon Market almost 50 percent (47.48%) sampled have recovered from active infection of the virus of those that were asymptomatic infections; and out of 1,047 Igg positive, there were 63 with PCR tests that were actively harboring the virus and only 33 of them were positive.

“This is very significant because more and more people have now responded to the exposures of the virus which means we are on the road to achieving ‘herd immunity’ but does it mean there is no more second wave of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City and in Central Visayas?” Bernadas opined.

He said that it is still difficult to conclude, it all depends on how vigilant and compliant the people are to the basic health and safety protocols being implemented at the communities, and people must expect performance from all the agencies of government down to the barangays.

“The most important consideration to flatten the curve and achieve ‘herd immunity’ is to really follow and strictly implement the minimum health standards in whatever we do and wherever we are.  We must all be aware on how to live with the virus,” Bernadas said.

According to Garganera and Bernadas that the Carbon model in virus infection management in Cebu City is a good gauge as to how ‘herd immunity’ happens in a community.  The local government units, especially at the barangays must be efficient and must have the knowledge to respond, trace, isolate those COVID-19 cases in their communities as efficiently as possible.

“In Cebu City, we hunt, we chase COVID-19 to secure the safety and health protocols implementation in various areas especially those where there are groups of people in convergence,” Garganera added.