The COVID-19 September deaths in Bacolod City hit 99 and 183 in Negros Occidental on Friday for a total of 282.
“This brings Bacolod’s COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic to 542, the situation is very bad,” City Administrator Em Ang, who is also executive director of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said.
The total COVID-19 deaths in Negros Occidental since the start of the pandemic has hit 785.
Bacolod City had 1,835 active COVID-19 cases and Negros Occidental had 3,418 on Friday.
The COVID-19 in Bacolod City now is more dangerous and is spreading much faster, Ang said.
It is the new norm now for all of the members in a household to be hit by the virus, she said.
Ang called on Bacolod hotels and establishments not to allow the holding of large gatherings that are COVID-19 super-spreaders, and to report all bookings made to the EOC.
One Church in Bacolod held its anniversary and three days later it’s two pastors and their wives, some deacons and members tested positive for COVD-19, Ang said.
A Bacolod resident also celebrated the birthday of her child with relatives who don’t belong to the same household, and three days later four tested positive for COVID-19, she added.
The infectious disease specialists are saying that the COVID-19 symptoms they are seeing now are very bad, Ang said.
The public really has to follow health protocols to stay safe, she said.
She said it is good that Bacolod has a BacTrac system for contact tracing because many who have been hit by the virus have been lying to contact tracers about where they had been.
They also do not declare who their close contacts have been because they do not want them to be quarantined, Ang said.
Ang said the BacTrac helps the EOC trace where a COVID-19 patient has been.
In Negros Occidental, there were 289 new COVID-19 cases, 91 recoveries and nine deaths on Friday, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
The Negros Occidental COVID-19 designated centers’ occupancy rates were at 102 percent at the Valladolid District Hospital, 99 percent at the Cadiz District Hospital and 25 percent at the Valeriano M. Gatuslao Memorial District Hospital in Himamaylan City on Friday, Diaz said.*