The Department of Health in Region 6 downgraded the COVID-19 risk classification of Negros Occidental and highly-urbanized Bacolod City from high to moderate, citing a drop in the two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate (ADAR).
Negros Occidental’s ADAR from Sept. 23 to Oct. 6 dropped to 8.12 percent from 8.41 percent per 100,000 population in the previous 14 days, and 21.50 percent for Bacolod City, Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te said in an online briefing on the COVID-19 situation in Western Visayas Oct. 11.
However, Bacolod remains under Alert Level 4 due to high healthcare utilization rate at 75.90 percent, and the increasing COVID-19 cases.
The DOH, meanwhile, lowered the risk classification of Negros Occidental to Alert Level 3 after its healthcare facilities’ utilization rate decreased to 53.85 percent, from 74.85 percent last week.
Areas under Alert Level 3 are those with high COVID case count and increasing health care utilization, regardless of the Delta variant presence, while Alert Level 4 areas have huge case count and high healthcare utilization rates.
The DOH also reported Oct. 11 that Negros Occidental logged 220 new COVID cases and Bacolod with 108.
This brings to 5,059 the active cases in Negros Occidental, and 2,133 in Bacolod City.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, meanwhile, said that fully-vaccinated travelers with authenticated Quick Response (QR) IDs are now allowed to enter Negros Occidental, without negative RT-PCR result.
Diaz said other protocols are still the same, with travelers to Negros Occidental required to register with the Safe, Swift and Smart Passage (S-PASS) app that requires either a negative RT-PCR result or a verifiable vaccination card.
The vaccination card should reflect in the provincial Management Information System or the vaccination portal of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), he added. — GB
