Asymptomatic cases have increased risk of transmitting the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in addition to other factors, such as the presence of various variants of concern in Western Visayas.
In a virtual presser, Dr. Daphynie Teorima, medical officer III of the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD), said asymptomatic cases generally are less vigilant in terms of maintaining the minimum public health standards (MPHS).
Teorima reported that 45.31 percent of the region’s 13,539 active cases are asymptomatic, mild cases are 48.46 percent, severe at 1.79 percent, and 0.13 percent are critical cases.
“Even if they are asymptomatic, we have to also track them and put them into quarantine to ensure that the spread of the virus is controlled,” she said.
Teorima said asymptomatic cases are difficult to identify but eventually, it was observed they developed into mild cases.
She said people, especially those in the “no work, no pay” scheme, are sometimes not reporting their cases due to economic reasons.
“These are the things that we have to consider. Maybe, we can adjust ang (the) work settings in a way that we allow those asymptomatic or with mild symptoms to work from home for them to earn,” she added.
Western Visayas has been classified as moderate risk and placed on alert level 3.
Alert level 3 means that case counts are high along with increasing health care utilization rate (HCUR).
“The number of cases in Western Visayas showed some slight increase towards high risk classification,” she said.
Guimaras, Iloilo province, Bacolod City, Iloilo City are on high risk; Negros Occidental is moderate risk; while Aklan, Antique, and Capiz are classified as low risk.
The Covid-19 situational report as of Sept. 5 showed that 8.76 percent of every 100,000 population got infected by Covid-19 in the recent two weeks from the previous 7.55 percent in the previous three to four weeks.
Its HCUR is classified under moderate risk.
Western Visayas recorded 419 cases of combined variants of concerns and variants of interest with 336 identified as local cases.
Iloilo province has registered the highest number of variants distributed in Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta, which are being suspected as reasons for the province’s increasing cases.
As of Sept. 5, the region also posted 92,443 recoveries and 2,537 verified deaths. (PNA)
