PALO, Leyte — The Department of Health (DoH) reported that dengue cases in Eastern Visayas is now reaching at least 10,000.

Latest data from the DoH regional office shows that from 1 January up to 1 August 2024, a total of 10,807 dengue cases have already been recorded with 22 deaths, way above the 2723 cases with nine deaths recorded over the same period last year.

Health officials are closely monitoring 289 barangays that are considered as dengue hotspots due to clustering of cases.

DoH-8 records also showed that Leyte and Samar provinces account for over half of the cases, with Leyte representing three out of every ten cases in the region.

Almost four in every 10 patients are children between one to 10 years old.

Meantime, logs from the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit showed that the last week of August recorded 1,230 new cases, which is 23 percent higher than the previous week.

Health officials have appealed to local government units and the public to intensify the search and destruction of potential mosquito breeding sites such as containers that stored water during the rainy days.