Health and other authorities in Negros Oriental have cited the resilience of the people in the province and the cooperation among government officials and the private sector in containing the spread of the coronavirus disease (2019) more than its neighboring provinces throughout the year 2020.
In January, when the world was still groping for more information on the novel coronavirus, later named as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) that emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019, the provincial government was literally caught flat-footed when the first two cases of Covid-19 in the Philippines were reported to have travel history to Negros Oriental.
They were a Chinese couple who had traveled from Wuhan to Negros Oriental via Hong Kong, and visited some places here, and stayed at different accommodations between January 22 to 25, until they flew back to Manila.
Upon arrival, both went to a hospital and were diagnosed with Covid-19. The 44-year-old-male succumbed to the viral disease, reported to be the first fatality outside of China.
The death, which Health Sec. Francisco Duque reported in early February, sent the public here into panic mode as the provincial government initially created a surveillance and monitoring team with Gov. Roel Degamo, Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion, and the provincial Department of Health (DOH), headed by Dr. Socrates Villamor meeting to map out a contingency plan with other agencies.
But there were no contingency measures back then on how to address the new highly-infectious coronavirus that had already claimed countless lives in Wuhan, and testing for Covid-19 in the following weeks and months had to be done in Australia in the absence of facilities in the Philippines as yet.
The accommodation facilities where the Chinese couple had stayed while in the province were locked down for disinfection, and the first contact-tracing commenced with those coming in close contact with them subjected to 14-day mandatory quarantine.
Fortunately, not one of them tested positive for the Covid-19 from the two imported cases.
In March, the first fatality in Negros Oriental was reported, still, another “imported” case because the patient had a travel history to Greenhills, Metro Manila before his return here and his hospital admission where he died days later.
Pretty soon, direct contacts to the first fatality here were reported to have contracted the virus, and while some recovered from symptoms while under home quarantine, a family member of the deceased also died later of Covid-19.
Tight restrictions imposed
By the middle of March, after the fatalities and the first few cases of Covid-19 in Negros Oriental were reported, Degamo issued an executive order placing the province under general community quarantine (GCQ).
This led to restrictions in travel, limited movements of people and vehicles, the imposition of curfew, and the setting up of quarantine control points or checkpoints at strategic locations.
As in many other areas in the Philippines, government officials were also looking at different ways to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, and by April, Degamo declared a stricter lockdown, the enhanced community quarantine.
Everyone’s daily grind practically rolled to a stop. The streets were empty of public transport, and only those with quarantine passes were authorized to leave their homes to stockpile food and other essentials on certain days.
No graduation exercises were held, business establishments shut down, people were told to stay at home, masses at different churches were canceled, and those exempted for various reasons also had restricted movement.
The provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) met constantly to draft out measures that would ensure the safety of the general public.
People went on panic-buying spree earlier before the quarantine restrictions, but suddenly, surgical masks and alcohol ran out, and those that were being sold were priced five or 10 times more than their original cost.
When the national government announced that locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) were already allowed to return, the provincial government and the local government units (LGUs) found themselves in a quandary on how to address the impending problem.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the succeeding months was a “handful” without a local or community transmission being forecast back then.
Many cases were of the returning residents, who were believed to have acquired the infection outside Negros Oriental.
Adrian Sedillo, provincial IATF-EID executive director, said that the slow spread of the infections was attributed to people observing health and safety protocols and LGUs were doing their best to attend to their respective positive cases.
By the end of April, the provincial government was preparing to downgrade to GCQ in May because there were no new confirmed positive Covid-19 cases in the last three weeks.
The transition carried with it some minor easing up of restrictions, such as allowing the resumption of masses but with only 10 people allowed at one time, public transport began operating again, and some other services also opened up.
Border security between the other provinces, however, was still very tight.
Spike in cases
Throughout the year, Sedillo said the provincial IATF and their counterparts in the LGUs constantly faced a barrage of challenges as the scenario constantly changed.
He said that LGUs were now mandated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to set up their own quarantine/isolation facilities.
This became a problem at first because the LGUs could not find the proper venue that would ensure the safety of the suspect or positive cases and the front-liners.
Schools, gymnasiums, and even barangay halls were utilized as quarantine facilities.
Sedillo noted that this arrangement was helpful because now the LGUs were directly involved in the reception of LSIs and ROFs, monitoring of suspect cases, and attending to confirmed cases unless those with severe symptoms who needed to be hospitalized.
But in the late third quarter of the year and onwards, the cases of positive infections began to rise, with local transmissions already being eyed, still without an official declaration from the provincial or local IATFs.
This triggered a call-out from groups of medical doctors who warned of a surge of cases with the easing up of restrictions.
They pushed for voluntary self-quarantine as the positive cases started to slowly rise, and while anticipating an increase, described the situation in the province as “alarming”.
Looking at the graph of the positive cases in Negros Oriental, the sudden spike started with what the doctors called a “super spreader”, referring to an authorized person outside of residence (APOR) who had a history of travel to Metro Manila and who tested positive of the virus upon his return here.
Before his return, the province had only a minimal number of positive infections.
Since then, the cases continued on an uphill climb, mainly attributed not just to the APOR but also to large gatherings such as the Dumaguete fiesta celebration in November, and the Christmas and New Year holiday celebrations.
Accomplishments
Despite the many challenges that the province had faced, government and health authorities went on with innovations and other measures to control the spread of the virus.
The provincial government built its own Covid-19 isolation facility at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) that included 34 single-bed rooms with individual ventilators and also established its molecular diagnostic laboratory (NOPHML) to hasten testing for the coronavirus.
The NOPHML was built on a PHP20-million fund from President Rodrigo Duterte’s Bayanihan Grant, with a donation of between PHP12 million to PHP14 million from geothermal power leader Energy Development Corporation, which donated two reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines and other equipment.
The province also established a “tent city” at the oval of the Perdices Memorial Coliseum here if hospitals were overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases.
Sedillo said the past year was a roller-coaster ride with Covid-19, considering that there were also restrictions from the national government and the problem with government agencies “not coordinating with their efforts”, but still, the resilience of Oriental Negrenses has allowed for the province to avoid a bloated scenario of infections.
Unlike neighboring provinces and cities, such as Negros Occidental and its capital, Bacolod City, and Cebu City, “our province is still considered to have a low rate of infections”, he said.
At the close of the year, the total number of Covid-19 positive cases in Negros Oriental was pegged at 937, broken down into 763 recoveries, 146 active infections, and 28 deaths, as reported by Assistant Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Liland Estacion, in a year-end virtual presser on Thursday.
Estacion noted that the percentage of recoveries outweighs the number of deaths or the active positive cases at a given time.
But she said that “let us not be complacent. Let us not let our guard down. The Covid-19 virus is still here and even with a vaccine already made available in other countries, it might be a while before it reaches us here”.
She appealed to the people to continue observing health and safety protocols and observing the so-called three C’s – close physical contact with others, confined places, and crowds.
“If we love our family and our friends, then let us do our part by cooperating with authorities and heeding their call to refrain from doing certain things that would compromise not just us but other people, too”, she said.
Sedillo and Estacion, while expecting the numbers to still rise after the holidays are over, are hopeful of a downward trend in Covid-19 cases in the new year, if everyone involved would only do their part.
Negros Oriental is still under a modified general community quarantine and restrictions have already been eased by as much as 50 percent, such as restaurants, masses, and public transport although classes are still held online and via blended learning with the use of modules. (PNA)
