ANGELES CITY — Hospitals in this city are no longer overwhelmed as it recorded a steady decline in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per day for the past two weeks, averaging 10 daily.
This was revealed by Dr. Froilan Canlas, chief of hospital of Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center (RLMMC) formerly Ospital Ning Angeles (ONA).
This is far from the double to triple digit cases recorded per day since the cases surged in August 15, hitting the peak of about 90 average daily infections.
Canlas explained that in the case of RLMMC, the city’s COVID center, for two weeks now, the improvised tent for COVID-19 patients are empty.
“Lahat ng pasyente nasa isolation rooms. Maluwag na maluwag kami. Pati mga health workers hindi toxic,” Canlas added.
Canlas said the main driver that led to the decrease in the number of cases is the extensive vaccination drive of the Angeles City Local Government Unit under the leadership of Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr.
“Definitely COVID vaccines help. Mayor Lazatin’s Chief Adviser IC Calaguas has mobilized all city government units to take part in this extensive endeavor because the goal is to jab as much as we can as fast as we can. In fact at one point we jabbed almost 10,000 in one day,” Canlas furthered.
Canlas also explained there is still a chance of acquiring the virus even after being vaccinated, just like the other existing vaccines, but are usually asymptomatic and mild in nature. However, COVID vaccines are very effective against getting the patients hospitalized or dying.
Since most of the patients being recorded for COVID were already vaccinated, they were just recommended for facility isolation, Canlas said.
“With this, hospitals are not overwhelmed anymore. Karamihan ng positive ngayon are asymptomatic to mild cases only, so facility isolation lang sila,” he added.
After almost two years of facing the pandemic, Angeles City knows how to contain a surge — from detection, isolation and treatment of cases, with ready facilities, hospital structures and referral centers to cater to all spectrum of COVID cases from the asymptomatic to the critical cases.
“In short, magaling na tayo sa handling ng COVID ngayon precisely because we now know a lot about it,” Canlas reiterated.
“Alam natin na vaccination lang ang ultimate solution sa COVID which the LGU is doing extensively,” he said.
To date, 255,235 Angeleños got their first dose of vaccines while 177,571 are fully vaccinated.
Canlas also shared that during the surge in the cases here, the Angeles city government is very supportive in terms of resources and supplies the hospital needs, avoiding panic in handling the situation.
“The good thing is very supportive tlaga ang LGU. Mayor Pogi provides everything we need. Never kami nagkulang on anything,” Canlas said.
“Kaya dito sa Angeles, walang nag panic nung kasagsagan ng surge. Kasi kaya. Pagod pero kaya,” he added.
Canlas is a Doctor of Internal Medicine and has been practicing medicine for 26 years.
