CHO: Four of 20 Covid-19 cases are babies

FOUR of the 20 Covid-19 cases logged by Cagayan de Oro City over the weekend are infants while Barangays Gusa and Lumbia recorded the most number of cases for that period, the City Health Office (CHO) said.

“The four Covid-19 cases were patients (younger than) one-year-old. This goes to show that everyone is vulnerable and can transmit the virus…Even the Department of Health (DOH) is considering (administering) the primary doses to those (younger than) one year old by 2023,” said City Health Officer Dr. Rachel Dilla during Monday’s Covid-19 response press briefing.

For the October 31 to Nov. 6 period, Barangay Gusa logged the most number of cases with 15 followed by Barangays Lumbia, Bugo, Carmen, Kauswagan, Macasandig, and Tablon Dr. Dilla said.

“But these barangays have large populations and their residents are quite mobile, so there’s a high possibility that they would log a large number of cases,” she said.

Other barangays with large populations like Bulua have fewer cases due to the higher vaccination rate among their residents, Dr. Dilla said.

Based on CHO data as of 10 pm on Nov. 7, Cagayan de Oro City logged 14 new cases and 147 active/ongoing cases. Of the 147 active cases, about 88 are confined in the city’s private and public hospitals, and 59 are confined in the city’s isolation facilities.

But Cagayan de Oro City logged 11 new recoveries and had no deaths on the same day, the CHO said. Dr. Dilla said most of the cases were mild with a small percentage of severe cases involving seniors with comorbidities.

“From single-digit cases, we now experience double-digit cases in the 20s and we don’t want that (even if we opened up our economy more),” Dr. Dilla said.

“(Due to the various mutations of the virus) it’s clear that Covid-19 won’t go away anytime soon so we have to learn to live with it and one of these ways is by boosting our immunity from the virus through vaccination. By securing our doses including booster shots we will achieve herd immunity and reduce the threat of the virus,” she added. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)