The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) on Saturday, September 25, called on the public to double their efforts to stay safe amid the alarming surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City.
The PCP-Negros Occidental chapter headed by Dr. Ronel Sario, in a health advisory, said the number of persons infected by the virus in the city and province on a daily basis is increasing at alarming rates.
The Department of Health in Western Visayas has placed Bacolod City and Negros Occidental under the highest COVID-19 alert level of 4 and classified both as high risk areas for COVID-19 transmission.
Bacolod City had 2,012 active COVID-19 cases and Negros Occidental had 3,470 on Sunday, September 26, the DOH reported.
Based on PCP data the number of COVID-19 deaths on a daily basis in the province and city have not gone bellow 10, and 93 percent of the fatalities have not been vaccinated, the advisory added.
Bacolod City has had 112 COVID-19 deaths from September 1 to 24, City Administrator Em Ang said.
Negros Occidental had 303 COVID-19 deaths from September 1 to 25, the Provincial Incident Management Team also reported.
Almost all hospitals have declared full capacity because of the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, lack of health care workers and scarcity of medicines to treat patients, the PCP said.
The PCP said it issued its advisory so Negros Occidental and Bacolod City residents will not be lax in their efforts to protect themselves.
Various COVID-19 variants are hitting Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, including the highly contagious Delta variant, , the PCP said.
The PCP stressed the need for everyone to wear masks, observe social distancing, wash hands all the time , stay at home unless for essential needs, and inform their employers if they are not feeling well to prevent the spread of the virus.
The doctors also also called on the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 for their own protection.*