THE DEPARTMENT of Health said Zamboanga City has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 patients who recovered from the deadly respiratory disease, and also the second lowest number of active Covid-19 cases in Western Mindanao.
In its August 23 bulletin, the DOH said Zamboanga City has 129 active cases with Isabela City recording the lowest infection with only 8 active cases. The province of Zamboanga del Sur has the highest number of active Covid-19 cases at 1,149 and Zamboanga Sibugay with 407; and Zamboanga del Norte with only 301. The whole region has 1,194 active Covid-19 cases.
But Zamboanga City has the highest number of recovered Covid-19 patients at 11,631 and followed by Zamboanga del Sur with 5,495; Zamboanga del Norte with 4,746 and Isabela City with 754 or a total of 24, 354.
Covid-19 deaths in Zamboanga City has reached 582, the highest in the region; and followed by Zamboanga del Sur with 217; Zamboanga del Norte with 194; Zamboanga Sibugay with 74 deaths and Isabela City with 21. Total Covid-19 deaths in the whole region are now 1,088.
Most of the Covid deaths in Zamboanga City were patients who had comorbidity or those with simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions.
The overall number in the DOH regional case bulletin may change in the coming days or weeks as local governments continue to battle the spread of Covid-19 in the communities.
The lack of vaccines also hampers the efforts of the local governments in fighting the virus despite the huge amount of loans by the Duterte administration for the purchase of medicines. Most of the vaccines the country received came from the World Health Organization and donations by other countries.
In July, some 11,800 doses of Covid-19 vaccines purchased by Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco from the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had arrived and bolstered the local government’s mass vaccination program.
Climaco signed a $2 million (or roughly P100 million) deal with AstraZeneca early this year. The initial P200 million for the purchase of the vaccines are included in the P4.38-billion 2021 Executive Budget of the local government, according to Climaco, who is also a member of the Committee on Vaccine Availment of the League of Cities of the Philippines.
She said the local government’s vaccination program will cover almost 700,000 residents or 70% of the projected 2021 population of 992,423 inhabitants. More than 100,000 residents had been inoculated with Covid-19 vaccines the past months based on the Department of Health’s (DOH) prioritization - A1 (Medical frontliners), A2 (Senior citizens) and A3 (People with comorbidity) and the A4 (Frontliner personnel in essential sector).
Zamboanga is one of the first cities that entered into a multilateral agreement for the purchase of vaccines through the League of Cities. (Zamboanga Post)
No comments:
Post a Comment