Complete bodies recovered in a mining village in Maco, Davao de Oro, which was hit by a landslide over a week ago, are now 90.

This number also includes retrieved body parts, said Leah Añora of the Maco’s management of the dead and the missing cluster in a media briefing on Thursday.

Meanwhile, those who are missing are 37.

Dr. Lycel Kaye Alaba of the Municipal Health Office said, on the other hand, that medical missions in nine evacuation centers are ongoing.

She cited that, as of February 9 up to date, the leading illnesses at the evacuation centers are hypertension, cough, fever, and headache, and assured that all of their medical needs are met.

Dr. Headyn Cenabre from the Provincial Veterinary Office said that as of Wednesday, they have rescued 27 dogs and 23 cats, both in barangays Masara and Mainit. They also vaccinated dogs in the evacuation centers and provided them with medical supplements and food.

“We will continue the rescue. So far, we have seen many stray dogs; some of them were really hungry, and some of them were really scared. If there are survivors in humans, there are also survivors in animals,” said Cenabre, noting that 127 dogs were given animal healthcare services and 97 owners were caterers.

Rescued animals are currently sheltered in an impounding facility in the town of Mawab.

Moreover, Cristy Epe from DepEd Davao de Oro said that seven schools are affected, of which six are public and one is private.

The number of learners affected was 4,333, of which 4,097 are from public schools and 236 are from private

Non-teaching and teaching personnel affected were 182, of whom 149 were from public schools and 33 were from private schools.

According to Epe, they have a program called ‘Tuloy Kaalaman’ to cater to those learners who were evacuated to different schools, wherein the focus is on the essential competencies of the student.

“These are reading, math, and science that need to be prioritized. In between, the other subject areas would come in like MAPEH and TLE to break the monotony of instruction,” she said, also adding that the affected learners receive psychological first aid and psychosocial services for the trauma brought on by the disaster.

On Wednesday, the disaster officials shifted to doing search and retrieval operations from search rescue and retrieval, or SRR, operations to expedite the rescue efforts on ground zero in Barangay Masara.

Ten teams were deployed on ground zero on Thursday to conduct search and retrieval operations and utilized six excavators and nine dump trucks.