After eight months of being Covid-free, the province of Batanes has reported its first case on Tuesday, a locally stranded individual who recently went home to the province.
“The Covid-19 case in Batanes has not been officially reported to DOH yet (as of 29 September 2020 database), but we have coordinated with the appropriate Center for Health Development (CHD) for relevant information. With Batanes recording a confirmed case, this means that all provinces have/had Covid-19 cases,” the Department of Health said.
All provinces have reported at least one new case in the past 28 days, the DOH noted.
“Defining an area to be disease-free depends on set metrics, which are not yet well defined for Covid,” the DOH added.
However, the DOH stressed that an indicator they are monitoring is the “absence of a new confirmed case over the past 28 days.”
“We also monitor if all previously reported confirmed cases have recovered, other Covid-19 cases discharged and reintegrated, and close contacts completed quarantine.”
Covid cases
As of 4 p.m. of September 29, the DOH reported the total number of Covid-19 cases at 309,303.
Of the confirmed cases, 50,925 (16.5 percent) are active cases, 252,930 (81.8 percent) have recovered and 5,448 (1.8 percent) have died.
There 2,025 newly-confirmed cases added to the list of Covid-19 patients with 290 recoveries and 68 deaths.
The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were National Capital Region (540 or 33 percent), Region 4A (296 or 18 percent), and Region 3 (239 or 15 percent).
Image credits: Joshua Berida