COVID-19 recoveries in Bacolod City now at 1,054 —mayor

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Friday said more than 1,000 cases have already recovered from COVID-19.

At a Laging Handa press briefing, Leonardia said as of September 10, a total of 1,054 recovered from the disease, but still there 1,124 active cases.

"So it's particularly a 50-50 situation although largely because these are new cases, because if you'll go back to our history, since March, we were having a peaceful time here, March, April, May, June... for example we only had one or two cases for the whole month," Leonardia said.

According to him, the number of COVID-19 cases started to rise in the city in July, upon the return of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and overseas Filipino workers.

But Leonardia expressed confidence that Bacolod City could survive this pandemic as Cebu City did.

He also said the city government is thankful for the support of the national government.

"We know that we're facing probably the biggest challenge ever ... and we talk about our resiliency as a people, [however,] this is quite a very very big concern. But we brace ourselves...  and we know that in the end, resilient as we are, we will survive this," Leonardia said.

Further, he said the city is now focused on its contact tracing efforts to curb COVID-19.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed Bacolod City under modified enhanced community quarantine from September 8 to 30 due to an increase in infections.

Officials of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases visited Bacolod City to intensify the health emergency response in the area.  —LBG, GMA News