BY MATÉ ESPINA
BACOLOD top bills the highest number of cases throughout Western Visayas, surpassing even the entire province of Negros Occidental that came in close second.
What is scary about this is Bacolod’s population at 600,000 is not even a fourth of that of the province which stands at 2.5 million. Yet in terms of COVID-19 cases, Bacolod stands at 1,216 with a high record of 241 cases over the weekend and four deaths.
Negros Occidental has 1,152 after 81 cases were recorded last weekend followed by Iloilo City with 984 and Iloilo province with 790.
The figures in Bacolod and Negros Occidental does not yet include the results of the four-day mass testing which ended yesterday. Officials peg the positivity rate at about five percent and if the target was 10,000 tests, we may have another surge in the numbers soon.
This is especially scary for Bacolod which does not have its own city hospital and has relied much on the services of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Region Hospital, which is a Department of Health (DOH) facility, for their constituents.
While we have quite a number of private health facilities, even with the additional bed-capacity ordered by DOH for COVID cases, these too are reportedly filled-up and compounded with depleting manpower as health workers resigned or went AWOL. A 12-men medical team sent by the national government were deployed to two private hospitals – the Riverside Medical Center and the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center.
Though the much-touted OPlan: One Time, Big Time mass testing program initially said that they will mobilize all five molecular laboratories in the city and province to hasten releasing of results and facilitate immediate isolation of those who will test positive, it seems that only the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital lab is left to process all tests. If so, the promised 24-hour turnaround results for testing may not actually happen.
Add to that the influx of LSIs and OFWs which was initially reported to temporarily stop but didn’t, and we may see inundated quarantine facilities and hotels soon. As if that is not enough problems, the national government recently added the Bacolod-Silay airport in the list of airports to open up for commercial flights.
No wonder Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia reportedly shed tears during one of his public address because with the way things are going, he knows that we are headed for big trouble.
Mayor Bing though has gotten so much flak for his decision-making process, the most recent of which was initially announcing a two-day lockdown for the mass testing, then extending and renaming it to a four-day zero-movement and then cutting it short again to less than two days when he revoked his EO 6 p.m. Saturday.
It seemed senseless since people already prepared for four days of lockdown and still wary of movement since we have yet to see the results of the over 4,300 people tested. Cutting short the lockdown and announcing the reinstatement of the Home Quarantine Pass (HQP) effective Sept. 3 to 15 just adds to the confusion as to what prods the mayor to make these decisions.
The HQP announcement was the answer to the call of the medical societies to limit the movement of people. City officials said we have about 150,000 households and each will be given one HQP, however, this can be used by four people alternately instead of just one.
Other measures is to continue the liquor ban, implement strict border controls around Bacolod but curfew will be extended from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. till 4 a.m. after officials notice that an early curfew may have caused rise in infections as motorists congregate heavily in transport terminals to avoid the early curfew.
In an online conference between city officials, medical workers, religious leaders and the business group last Sunday, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce president Frank Carbon said they asked government to look closely at the local transmissions, saying they’ve identified three areas of probable spread – in banks, public markets and the BPO industry.
In other news, Olivia Yanson, the matriarch of Vallacar Transit that owns Ceres, the country’s biggest transport system, was airlifted via air ambulance to St. Luke’s Hospital in Metro Manila last Saturday after her condition deteriorated. She is COVID-19 positive.
The Yansons are embroiled in a corporate dispute with two kids – Ginnette Dumancas and Leo Rey siding with their mom. Ginnette accompanied her mother and asked for prayers from the public for her recovery.
The four other children – Roy, Emily, Ricky and Celina Lopez have banded together in the opposition and have been estranged with their mom since last year. This was after a controversial corporate takeover that even dragged President Rodrigo Duterte to intervene in the dispute but to no avail. The four are said to be abroad and issued a statement praying for their mom’s recovery which they said they found out from other people and via social media.
So far, it’s a wait-and-see game as to where Bacolod and Negros are headed in this crisis but we know we are in for a long haul./PN
