The number of suspect dengue cases within a single week in the province of Catanduanes reached a new high of 95 last week, bringing the total in just four weeks to 322, the Provincial Health Office reported.
As indicated in the statistics from the Provincial Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (PESU), the 322 cases recorded from July 26 to August 22, 2026 surpassed the number from the previous month of just 192 cases by 67 percent.
In the current outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease that began 10 weeks ago on June 14, a total of 559 people has been infected by the virus carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
This brought the total cases for the current year to 864, which is considerably higher by 23 percent than the 701 registered for the same period in 2025.
Infections from the capital town of Virac totaled 211 or 65 percent of the total for the past month.
Recording double-digit cases for the same period were the towns of Bato (27), San Andres (21), San Miguel (17), Caramoran (16), and Baras (12).
San Isidro Village, with 41 taken ill by dengue, leads seven (7) Virac barangays with high number of suspect dengue cases.
The others are Calatagan Proper with 17, Palnab del Norte with 14, Capilihan and Hicming with 11 each, and Cavinitan and Gogon Centro with 10 each.
The increase in such cases in Catanduanes is not reflective of the national trend as the Department of Health has reported that the 93,155 dengue cases recorded this year as of Aug. 1, 2026, is lower by 80,922 than the 174,077 cases reported during the same period last year.
Several metropolitan cities as well as 10 provinces were reported to have breached the dengue threshold, which serves as an early warning for local government units and related agencies to prepare for the disease.
The epidemic threshold indicates an active, widespread outbreak requiring urgent action from local health authorities.
“Practice 4Ts – taob or flip, taktak or shake, tuyo or dry up and takip or cover all containers – to prevent them from becoming breeding sites of mosquitos,” the DOH Bicol Center for Health Development (CHD ) V said in a recent statement.
The onset of the rainy season in the country indicates the possibility that dengue-carrying mosquitoes could breed in stagnant water around the house and the community, it stressed.
The health department urged the people to conduct regular clean-up of their respective homes and remove objects where the insects could breed in order to prevent the spread of the disease.