The average number of daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases being recorded in the province continues to decline for the last few weeks, according to the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
During the Question Hour of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) on Monday, Pangasinan Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) chief and IATF member Rhodyn Lunchivar Oro said the province only recorded 202 daily average coronavirus cases from October 1 to 15.
He said the number is expected to be significantly lower than the 249 average daily cases recorded in September.
Oro said the highest single-day Covid-19 tally last month was recorded on September 15 with 878 cases, while the highest number of cases so far this month was 475 tallied on October 5.
“There is a significant or slow decrease in the attack rate for the month of September this year until recently,” he added.
Oro further said the isolation utilization rate also continued to decline from 21.74 percent last week to 6.75 percent, or 116 occupied beds out of the 1,718 dedicated isolation beds as of October 18.
He attributed the downtrend of Covid-19 cases recorded in the province to the constant cooperation of Pangasinenses to the public health and safety protocols as well as the efforts being undertaken by the health sector, and the adherence of the local government units to the implementation of minimum public health standards.
It can be noted that for the past month, the provincial government hired medical and utility personnel for its 14 hospitals to augment the number of healthcare staff.
“On the part of isolation, we have also augmented several tents during the height of the surge of Covid-19 cases in the province,” he said.
Meanwhile, based on the Covid-19 tracker of the Provincial Health Office, as of October 17, Pangasinan recorded 215 new cases, pushing the number of active cases to 1,561 of the 33,577 total cases.
It said 30,915 have recovered while 1,101 have died.
Source: Philippines News Agency