Confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in Eastern Visayas have reached 1,308 as 43 new infections were reported on Tuesday.

The region reported its first patient on March 23 and from just 40 cases on June 1, the number has surged significantly due to testing of returning residents, including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs), mostly from Metro Manila and Cebu, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Among the provinces in the region, 582 were recorded in Leyte, 286 in Samar, 165 in Southern Leyte, 46 in Northern Samar, 60 in Biliran, and 14 in Eastern Samar.

The cities of Ormoc and Tacloban have 79 and 76 total cases, respectively.

Based on the DOH monitoring report, at least 857 or 65.52 percent of the region’s confirmed patients have already recovered, while four have died of Covid-19 complications.

The deaths include an 80-year-old woman from Tarangnan, Samar; a 65-year-old man from Kawayan, Biliran; a 47-year-old man from Kananga, Leyte; and a 14-year-old girl from Calbayog City in Samar.

“Most of our patients are asymptomatic. The region’s recorded deaths have underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes and cardiac and respiratory diseases,” DOH 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Minerva Molon said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 29 of the newly reported cases on Tuesday are from Leyte – five each in Tacloban City and Tanauan, four in Palo, three in Hilongos, two each in Javier, Albuera, Inopacan, and Merida, and one each in Barugo, Capoocan, Isabel, and Dulag.

Five more residents in Southern Leyte have been infected (three in Sogod, and one each in San Francisco and Pintuyan); four in Samar (two in Villareal, and one each in Gandara and Calbayog City); three in Eastern Samar (two in Lawaan and one in Giporlos); and one in Almeria, Biliran.

“These include OFWs from (the) Bahamas and Korea, LSIs from Makati, Pasig, Taguig, Laguna, and Cebu, close contacts of a confirmed patient, and a health worker,” Molon said.

They are part of the 463 swab results from the region’s two Covid-19 laboratories here, 31 new confirmed cases released by the privately-managed Divine World Hospital Virology Laboratory, and 12 by the state-run Eastern Visayas Regional Covid-19 Testing Center in Tacloban City.

To date, the region has 447 active cases in hospitals, community isolation units, and temporary monitoring and treatment facilities. (PNA)