The Department of Health (DOH) has warned of a notable increase in cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in Western Visayas, and warned the public to be cautious and for local government units (LGUs) should step up their response.

Guimaras and Iloilo City topped the list of areas in the region where Covid-19 case spikes were recorded.

“We have an increase in the number of cases when compared to the previous increase in cases last year. We can see similar trends in the number of cases but we would like to veer away from classifying this marked increase in cases as having a second wave,” said Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, medical officer IV of the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD), in a virtual presser on Monday.

During the presser, she said that Guimaras and Iloilo City are already classified as high risk while Aklan, Iloilo province, and Bacolod City are at moderate risk. The rest of the provinces have low risk.

Guimaras has posted a 311-percent growth in cases while Iloilo City has 87 percent.

The classification was based on their growth in cases in recent one to two weeks versus their previous three to four weeks and their average daily attack rate per 100,000 population.

The region’s average daily cases this month of May is recorded at 347 from 261 cases in April. In January, the average daily case was at 52, at 59 in February, and 84 in March.

As of May 23, 2021, the regional cases bulletin showed that Western Visayas has 6,105 active cases, 36,192 recoveries, and 1,047 deaths.

Meantime, Te added that it is now up to the local government units (LGUs) to determine what measures could help arrest the rising cases, even suggesting the imposition of a surgical lockdown or targeting places with confirmed positive patients.

With the case of Iloilo City, it is currently under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

Te said the people have become lax, others forgot to observe minimum public health standards, there were family events and social gatherings that resulted in local transmission.

“We should continue our adherence to minimum public health standards and we should not be complacent because as you can see we have high local transmission,” she added.

Te said that the minimum public health standard should be observed even at home.