BY OLIVER T. BACCAY
TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (April 16)—The provinces and cities in the mainland Cagayan Valley region are already on critical and high-risk epidemic classifications, signifying a red alert status on the region’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) attack rate and growth change.
Shiela Marie Villamil of the Department of Health in Region 2 reported that the cities of Cauayan and Ilagan, as well as the province of Nueva Vizcaya, are now under critical epidemic risk status as they have registered over 200 percent growth change in their Covid-19 cases recently.
She also said provinces of Cagayan, Isabela and Quirino as well as the cities of Tuguegarao and Santiago are also on a high risk classification level.
“Only Batanes is under a low risk classification with only 10 cases recorded as of now and registering negative 25 percent growth change,” Villamil stated.
She also said there were already 107,557 individual samples tested cumulatively in which 86,894 turned negative. Likewise, 20,663 tested positive, registering a 19.2 percent positivity rate regionwide.
“The positivity rate of the region is also alarming because we exceeded the threshold level which is five percent. We need to do something to bring down this rate,” she said.
She also said that the current Regional Health Care Utilization rate is also at high risk, particularly at 82.13 percent. This means that the capacity of Covid ward beds, isolation beds, and mechanical ventilators are at high risk, but the ICU beds are already at a critical level.
Villamil also stated that the Community Isolation Units is already at 95 percent or at critical risk level in the whole region which is attributed to the increasing Covid-19 cases.