By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The Department of Health in Western Visayas (DOH-6) has downgraded the risk level classification of Negros Occidental to Alert Level 3 while the highly-urbanized Bacolod City remains at Alert Level 4.
Areas under Alert Level 3 are those with high case count of COVID-19, with increasing health care utilization, regardless of Delta variant presence, while Alert Level 4 are those with huge case count and high health care utilization rates (HCUR).
As of Sunday, October 10, Negros Occidental’s HCUR reduced to 53.85 percent from 74.87 percent last week, compared to 75.90 percent of Bacolod City, Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te of the DOH-Western Visayas Center for Health Development revealed during a virtual presser yesterday.
However, the risk classification of both the province and Bacolod City downgraded to moderate, due to two-week reduction in COVID-19 growth cases and slight reduction in average daily attack rate (ADAR) per 100,000 population.
The ADAR of Negros Occidental was recorded at 8.12 percent while 22.50 percent in Bacolod City, per 100,000 population.
As of Sunday, the Provincial Incident Management Team logged 4,313 active COVID-19 cases in Negros Occidental.
Bacolod City, meanwhile, has 2,109 active COVID-19 cases./DGB, WDJ