The province of Negros Oriental continues to see a decline in suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases as health authorities reported that the province no longer has new confirmed ones.

The number of cases of persons with symptoms associated with Covid-19 has also gone down in what appears to be a “flattening of the curve”, said Dr. Liland Estacion, Assistant Provincial Health Officer and chair of the health committee of the province’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19.

In its latest advisory issued at 4 p.m. Sunday, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) still maintained its previous reports in the past two weeks or so of four confirmed cases with two deaths, one still confined, and one recovered.

Estacion, who is also the IATF’s information officer for health concerns, over the weekend said one of the patients codenamed CV 27 has been discharged from the hospital after having been cleared of the disease.

That patient first tested negative and then tested positive in the second confirmatory swab test and then tested negative again twice in a row in subsequent tests, she said.

CV 28, meanwhile, is still in the hospital but already “extubated” and tested negative in the third swab test, she added.

“We’re definitely seeing a downtrend in cases and we are praying that there will be no more new positive Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks,” Estacion said in Cebuano.

The first confirmed Covid-19 patient who died here was an “imported” case, having a history of travel to Greenhills in San Juan, Metro Manila, but also had underlying health conditions.

The second patient who died was a relative who had come into contact with the first patient.

The PHO also reported a decrease in the number of asymptomatic persons being closely monitored and self-quarantined, and a spike in the number of asymptomatic persons who had completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine

All other cases, whether suspect or probable, either have a history of travel or have had contact with an infected patient or symptomatic persons.

The province still has three cases classified as Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), seven as Moderate Acute Respiratory Infection (MARI), 31 as Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) without co-morbidities, and seven with co-morbidities.

Persons who are asymptomatic and are under monitoring and home quarantine are pegged at 572, while the number of asymptomatic persons who have completed quarantine has reached 13,088.

Majority of these persons have had a history of travel, mostly domestic or inter-island prior to the province being placed under enhanced community quarantine which led to the sealing of its borders.

Under the new classification of Covid-19 cases being used by the Department of Health (DOH), ILIs (both with or without co-morbidities) fall under the classification as “suspect”, while SARI and MARI cases are considered as “probable”, said Dr. Socrates Villamor, provincial DOH chief in Negros Oriental.

The early classification of Covid-19 cases, namely, Patients Under Investigation (PUI) and Persons Under Monitoring (PUM) had also been dropped, he said.

While the DOH is using its latest three classifications of Covid-19 cases – suspect, probable, and confirmed – health authorities here are using the SARI, MARI, and ILI classification, according to guidelines set by the DOH Region 7, Villamor added. (PNA)