Negros Occidental had 20 active COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, April 6, the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said.
Negros Occidental had 27 active COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and 37 on Monday.
There have been two days where the province had no new COVID-19 cases, Lacson also pointed out.
Lacson said he reminded the barangay officials to help improve the COVID-19 vaccination drive of the province during the Liga ng mga Barangay – Negros Occidental Provincial Summit on Monday.
He pointed out that five local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental have been deescalated to Alert Level 1 and there should be seven more that should be included for having hit their 70 percent COVID-19 vaccination targets.
It is good that the Department of Health and the national Inter-Agency Task Force allowed the LGUs with high vaccination rates to deescalate to Alert Level 1 so it will encourage others still under Alert Level 2 to do better, Lacson said.
The governor reminded the public that COVID-19 is not over and health protocols must still be observed.
There are predictions that gatherings during the campaign period could trigger another spike in COVID-19 cases by June, he said.
Meanwhile, ensuring that COVID-19 vaccines do not expire is a matter for the Department of Health and the Provincial Health Office to manage, he said.
Some LGUs and even the national government ordered vaccines but those that were donated arrived first, he said.
Now those that were ordered are arriving that is why the president is pushing for house to house vaccination, Lacson said, adding that booster shots should also be pushed to make use of expiring vaccines.
Negros Occidental only ordered 50,000 doses “because we took the word of the national government that they would provide us with vaccines,” Lacson said.*