BACOLOD CITY – A total of 22 out of the 61 barangays in this city are considered free from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) as these areas no longer have records of active cases or local transmission for two weeks.
On Saturday, three more barangays are set to be added to the list after the first 19 Covid-free villages were confirmed by the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) earlier this week.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia, the chairperson of the EOC Task Force, said that three others will be announced soon as he told Bacolodnons that the development is “something to celebrate”.
The first 19 villages with zero active cases in the past 14 days were barangays 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, and Punta Taytay.
“These barangays should maintain their status and the other barangays should also try to catch up,” the mayor said.
Leonardia noted that the battleground against Covid-19 is in the barangays, pointing out that at the height of the city’s confirmed cases in the past months, all 61 villages have positive cases.
He also said that despite the city's high number of cases, it has a recovery rate of 87.75 percent, or 4,098 cases out of the total 4,670, with 454 active cases and 118 deaths as of Thursday (Oct. 22).
Earlier this week retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, the chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)-Visayas, said that Covid-19 cases here have been decreasing starting October as a result of the effective interventions and systems being implemented by the EOC to curb local transmission.
From the third to fourth week of September, the city has been averaging 50 cases per day. Between the first and second week of October, cases have gone down to an average of only 25 cases a day.
On Oct. 21, the city recorded only 13 new cases, while on Oct. 20, only four, the lowest daily record since June. (PNA)
