KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 11 June) – Soccsksargen or Region 12 recorded an all-time high of 413 new confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, with the active cases soaring past the 3,000 mark, the Department of Health-12 (DOH-12) said.
The biggest single–day new COVID-19 cases were logged Thursday evening, bringing the active cases to 3,149 while the deaths due to the disease rose to 447, the agency said.
The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region since last year now stood at 15,146 with 11,548 recoveries, the tracker showed.
South Cotabato logged the highest COVID-19 cases in the region at 4,902, followed by the chartered city of General Santos with 4,459, North Cotabato with 2,496, Sultan Kudarat with 1,704 and Sarangani with 1,585, it said.
South Cotabato also has the highest active COVID-19 cases at 1,207 followed by General Santos at 696, although in terms of deaths General Santos topped the region at 140, followed by North Cotabato at 120 and South Cotabato at 118.
For the new confirmed COVID-19 cases released 6 p.m. Thursday, Koronadal City, the capital and component city of South Cotabato, recorded the highest at 79 closely followed by General Santos at 73.
Arjohn Gangoso, health education and promotion officer of the Department of Health-12, said the virus is rapidly increasing across the region as people disregarded minimum health protocols.
“We’ve seen the transmission spreading in the households and offices as people tend to be comfortable to those they know that they no longer practice the minimum health standards,” he said in a phone interview.
The minimum health protocols he referred to are the wearing of face mask and face shield, physical distancing and regular hand sanitizing.
The previous all-time high for new COVID-19 cases was 378, recorded on June 4.
Region 12 has a population of 4.55 million based on the 2015 census.
But as of June 5, at least 104,442 residents have been inoculated with either Coronavac or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, DOH-12 data showed.
Of the figure, 49,179 have been fully-vaccinated with two doses, belonging to the A1 to A3 priority lists. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)