Bacolod City – The province of Negros Occidental slid down to Alert Level 1 as the number of new COVID-19 cases continue to go down

Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz confirmed Monday that the Department of Health (DOH) has lowered the COVID-19 alert level of the province to "Alert Level 1" following the continuous drop in cases.

The latest COVID-19 data released by the Provincial Incident Management Team showed that active cases in Negros Occidental totaled 928 as of August 15.

Cases in Negros Occidental since March 2020 is 22,034 with 20,531 recoveries and 575 deaths.

Diaz said the DOH downgraded the province's alert level because the positivity rate is also dropping and the province's hospital occupancy is only at 33.2 percent.

He further said that the alert level status was downgraded because there is no Delta variant case in the province.

Separate records released by the DOH Region 6 show that the two-week growth rate in COVID-19 cases in Negros Occidental dropped to 33.21 percent, with the daily attack rate only at 1.62 percent.

Alert Level 1 means that the number of case transmissions is decreasing, healthcare utilization is low, and the absence of the Delta variant.

Previously, Negros Occidental was placed on Alert Level 2.

Data from the PIMT also showed that the city of Bago has the most number of active cases at 95, followed by La Carlota City with 82 and La Castellana with 69 as of August 8, 2021.
(Dolly Yasa via The Daily Guardian (TDG), photo courtesy of TDG)