Department of Health (DOH 11) Assistant Regional Director Dr. Gerna Manatad confirmed that Covid-19 cases in Davao Region remain low contrary to a surge scare following the May 9 local and national elections.
Manatad reported that there are only 31 confirmed cases recorded from May 23 to 29, 2022 and DOH 11 is hoping that the trend will continue.
“We are constantly monitoring the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases every day. So far, we hope to sustain this kind of situation,” she said.
She added that DOH 11 continues to see a low number of cases with no sudden changes or increases weekly. She also said the health department is also closely coordinating with the local epidemiology and surveillance unit and the hospitals that admit confirmed cases of Covid-19.
“For the hospital capacity, in case meron tayong mga kalangan i-admit sa hospitals mataas yung kapasidad ng ating mga hospitals because mababa ang kaso natin for the whole region,” she said.
She said in terms of the positivity rate, Davao Region is at less than one positivity rate.
Meanwhile, Manatad said DOH 11 is conducting extensive monitoring in the surveillance of the new Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1.
“We are also submitting reports as long as it fits the criteria na kailangan nating kolektahan ng samples for genomic sequencing. We are closely coordinating with the epidemiology bureau together with the Philippine Genome Center (PGC),” she said.
Earlier this month, the DOH Covid-19 surveillance system first detected BA.2.12.1 in two local cases from the National Capital Region (NCR) who had no international travel history and were from the same cluster. Both cases experienced mild symptoms and tested positive last April 22, 2022. They are asymptomatic and have completed home isolation. The cases have been fully vaccinated.
