THE Covid-19 cases in Cagayan de Oro breaches the 100-mark yesterday prompting officials here to remove basketball rings and implement a “No Vaccine, No Entry” in the city malls and markets.
The Regional Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Disaster Response Unit (RESDRU) of the Department of Health Region 10, in its Jan. 14, 2022, report, recorded 113 Covid-19 cases in Cagayan de Oro on the day that the national Inter-Agency Task Force raise the status of the city to Alert level 3.
The number of Covid-19 cases marks the first time when the city recorded triple-digit infections in August last year that almost shut down the city’s hospital system.
City Health Office medical officer Dr. Ted Yu said Cagayan de Oro has been logging only one case per day three weeks before Christmas last year.
Yu said then last Monday the Covid-19 cases jumped to 60 cases a day causing major concern among local authorities here.
“This is already very alarming,” Mayor Oscar Moreno said as he directed local agencies to be strict in implementing health protocols.
In a citywide simultaneous operation last Friday, policemen and barangay officials removed the rings of all community basketball courts to prevent contact sports among the residents.
Cagayan de Oro police chief Col. Aaron Mandia said security agencies in shopping malls and markets are instructed to implement the “No Vaccine, No Entry” policy of the local government.
Mandia said police checkpoints are again set up in the city streets to ensure a “70-percent passenger capacity” on jeepneys and motorelas.
The IATF also placed the neighboring city of Iligan and three other provinces in Region 10 under Alert Level 3.
IATF spokesperson Karlo Alexei Nograles said Iligan City and the provinces of Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, and Misamis Occidental will be under Alert Level 3 starting January 16 until January 31.
DOH 10 Dr. David Mendoza said the two-week growth rate in these places jumped to 1,500 percent making the entire region 10 “a high-risk area” for coronavirus infection.
“This is a sudden, very steep growth rate. This is the first we experienced this since the month of August,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza identified Cagayan de Oro; Ozamiz, Opol town in Misamis Oriental; Malaybalay City and the towns of Manolo Fortich and Baungon in Bukidnon as cities and municipalities with high coronavirus infections.
He said a total of 281 new confirmed cases were reported throughout the region as of January 14, 2022.
