Coronavirus cases in the province of Catanduanes rose to 10 last week, the highest since Feb. 26, 2022 when the last surge in new cases occurred during the first month of the year.
Still, it is way down from 176 cases recorded on Jan. 28 recorded by health authorities during the surge’s peak.
Five of the cases are in the capital town of Virac, four in neighboring San Andres and one in Viga.
The Provincial Health Office’s COVID-19 Tracker showed that the first time the island had zero cases was on April 28 but this lasted for barely a week.
Zero cases were also logged for the period May 9 to 21, May 23, and June 5-6, before the current rise in cases began on June 7 with three.
The same tracker history shows that from Jan. 1 to June 25, a total of 448 people were infected by the virus, bringing the total so far to 3,210 cases.
Of this, 3,069 have recovered from the disease while 132 succumbed to the complications.
Of the fatalities, eight were recorded during the first three months of 2022, with the last on March 15.
In her report during last week’s meeting of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council chaired by Governor Joseph Cua, Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Franchette Amabella Panti said that while 100% of the target population of 223,057 have been given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 19 percent have yet to be given the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.
On the other hand, she added, only 65% of the total population of 223,484 are fully vaccinated.
“If the efficacy of the first dose given to the partially vaccinated wanes, they would likely get infected,” Dr. Panti warned.
She disclosed that the three individuals recently infected were either unvaccinated or had only the first of the two primary doses.
For now, she said, vaccination is ongoing for children aged 5-17 years old as well as those 18 years old and above, along with the first booster dose for 18 years-and-above.
The second dose booster for A1 (healthcare workers) and A2 (senior citizens) is also on-going, provided they received the first booster dose at least four months earlier.
The latest report on the vaccine rollout indicates that 37,090 people 18 years old and above have been given their first booster dose, with 781 jabbed with the second booster dose.