COVID-19 numbers in

Bohol now decreasing

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 3 (PIA) –The numbers are improving.

For the last 22 days, Bohol’s active coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases have gone below the 1,000 count, and the new COVID cases detected every day has been lowered to double digits for the last 30 days.

Moreover, deaths by the viral disease also significantly decreased by 46% from September’s 177 COVID related deaths, to 94 deaths ascribed to COVID in October.

This as Bohol creeps to improve its vaccination accomplishment to reach 70% as fast as possible, to attain the target herd immunity.

In the case of Bohol, the Emergency Operations Center of the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force (BIATF) on the management of Emerging Infectious Disease has showed that Bohol is still 17.24 percent accomplished in vaccinating its general population.

As of October 27, EOC Bohol has fully vaccinated 240,430 of its general population of 1,394,329 as per data from the latest Philippine Statistics Authority in its recent Census on Population and Housing.

The same EOC data also showed that those have been given the initial dose against COVID have also reached 17.08%.

Some 238,165 Boholanos have been inoculated with their first dose and in a month’s time, will have attained full protection.

Experts have presumed that when a certain place will have attained a vaccination rate of at least 30% of its total population, the numbers would start flattening.

But at present, with a little over 17% who are fully vaccinated, observers have started to think that herd immunity may have already worked.

Herd immunity happens when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person less likely.

As a result, the whole community and not just those who are immune, are protected.

According to the World Health Organization, there are two ways to attain herd immunity: by natural infection, or by vaccination.

Natural infection happens when enough people in the population have been infected, remained asymptomatic, and recovered from the disease. By this, they have developed protective antibodies against future infection.

On the other hand, herd immunity also can be reached when enough people have been vaccinated against a disease and have developed protective antibodies against future infection.

While Bohol is still at 17%, the indicators are pointing to the telltale signs of a 50% vaccination rate which is predicted to bring the numbers down, until its total decline when 70% vaccination is achieved. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)