Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced on Sunday, October 31, that he has asked the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases to downgrade Bacolod City’s Alert Level 4 status to Alert Level 3 effective Monday, November 1.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, on the other hand, has issued an executive order placing Negros Occidental under Alert Level 2 from November 1 to 14.
Leonardia, in a letter to Health Secretary Franciso Duque III, IATF chairman, Friday, October 29, appealing for the downgrade said there is a significant reduction of COVID-19 cases in the city to reasonably loosen restrictions in order for Bacolod residents to resume earning activities.
Under the COVID-19 alert level system, Level 4 refers to areas where case counts are high or increasing, and where the total bed and intensive care unit utilization (ICU) rate is high, he pointed out.
The Department of Health Western Visayas COVID-19 situational report as of October 28 shows that the COVID-19 cases in Bacolod City have been decreasing in the past two weeks.
The health care capacity in all tertiary hospitals in Bacolod City is 69 percent with only half of the patients from Bacolod City and the rest from other local government units in Negros Occidental, he said.
ICU utilization rate is 55.56 percent, which also includes patients from other LGUs, he added.
Isolation facility accommodation has decreased significantly to only 19.66 percent, he Leonardia said.
Real time data shows that there are 954 active COVID-19 cases and 23,361 accumulated cases in Bacolod City, he added.
The recoveries have reached 21,660 or 92.72 percent, which correlates to good management and treatment of COVID-19 cases, Leonardia said.
Bacolod COVID related deaths have also decreased by 55 percent from last month, he said.
Based on DOH 6 data Bacolod City has the second highest percentage of fully vaccinated population in the region at 42.28 percent and 12 percent who are partially vaccinated, he also pointed out.
Lacson, on the other hand, issued Executive Order 21-48, on Friday adopting the IATF directive placing Negros Occidental under Alert Level 2 from November 1 to 14.*