Baguio Covid cases rise; mayor sets stricter rules

PNP urged: Probe release of patients’ names 

By Carlito C. Dar and Jessica Mardy Samidan

BAGUIO CITY -- Mayor Benjamin Magalong announced stricter guidelines urging locals to strictly observe health standards as drastic increase in Covid – 19 cases were recorded here and in the region last week.

Stricter border control, as a result, was implemented wherein only essential and necessary travels were allowed.

Sunday lockdown was re-implemented   and liquor ban re-imposed.    

The mayor said the Baguio City Public Market will again be closed every Sunday for disinfection while all commercial establishments must ensure that their toilets are disinfected 2 – 3 times per week.

These measures are necessary as 30 new confirmed cases were recorded in Baguio City from July 24 up to July 26, he said. 

Early last week, data of the City Health Services Office showed 95 confirmed cases recorded in the city where 45 were active, 48 recovered   and two died. 

The same report showed there were also 223 suspect cases and 3,256 possible cases strictly monitored. 

With surge in cases, Magalong ordered lockdown of 23 barangays, namely Camp Allen, Guisad Central, Kayang Extension, Padre Zamora, Salud Mitra, Upper QM, Asin Road, Bakakeng Central, Middle Quezon Hill, SLU – SVP, Santo Tomas Central (School Area), Santo Tomas Proper, Camp 7, San Vicente, Brookside, Lopez Jaena, New Lucban, MRR - Queen of Peace, Trancoville, West Modernsite and Irisan (Purok 20, 21, 22 and 24). 

The lockdown order was for contact tracing and to ensure safety of persons who may have come into contact with new confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the anti-cybercrime group of the Philippine National Police was urged by Magalong probe unauthorized release of identities of city residents who tested positive for Covid-19.

Magalong told the PNP he received reports names and personal information of Baguio’s Covid-19 patients are spreading on social media.

“This act is downright irresponsible and heartless,” Magalong said, adding a patient’s identity is confidential.

He cited Section 9 of Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, which prohibits disclosure of a person’s medical condition or treatment.

Violators are penalized with one to six months imprisonment and a fine of P20,000 to P50,000.

Magalong earlier urged folks here infected by Covid-19 to bare their identities for purposes of contact –tracing but said they were not being forced to do so if they wanted their identities secret.

Stricter measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19 have been implemented in this city amid a surge in confirmed cases in the past few days.

Magalong said the increase in the number of cases could be considered a “second wave” of virus transmission in the city.

The number of those infected hit 100, with two cases recorded Wednesday

As July 26, some 3,256 people were isolated while 17,969 suspected to have contracted the virus completed home quarantine.

More than 20,000 underwent swab and 17,969 rapid anti-body testing.

Magalong said testing of 10 percent of the city’s population, which started earlier this month, is ongoing.

He ordered the implementation of stricter border control to ensure that only essential travel is allowed.

Magalong tapped the Philippine National Police Cordillera and the Dept. of Health Cordillera to augment contact tracing teams in the city and assist local government units in the region.

The training of additional contact tracing personnel came in heels of the sudden increase of Covid-19 cases in Baguio attributed to expanded testing of high risk sectors particularly frontliners and those with Covid-like symptoms, senior citizens, vendors, drivers, and workers of business establishments allowed to operate.

Magalong, named as the country’s contact tracing czar, developed a local system of tracking contacts of Covid-19 patients using his background in the military called cognitive interviewing skill and added counselling and health protocols of the medical sector through the City Health Services Office.

“In extreme cases, we can tap the Armed Forces of the Philippines as tracers,” the mayor said.

                “Our target is to complete at least 80 to 90 percent of a patient’s contacts within three days, have them tested, isolated or quarantined,” Magalong said.

 Dr. Donnabel Panes, City Epidemiologist, said private institutions are also encouraged to formulate their own contact tracing teams to be trained by the city government for free.

Recently, the Philippine Economic Authority Zone (PEZA), hospitals in the city and several academe and business establishments have sought the assistance of the city for the training of their own contact tracing units.

An average of 37 individuals are being contact-traced for every Covid-19 patient.

This was based on the data of the city’s contact tracing team composed of over 600 personnel from the City Health Services Office and city police trained by Magalong on cognitive interview for effective tracking system.

Dr. Donnabel Panes, city epidemiologist, explained that once a swab specimen yields positive Covid-19 results, the contact tracing team immediately informs the patient.

Within three hours from receiving the report of a positive Covid-19 result, the contact tracing team is immediately deployed to locate the patient for health assessment, counselling and interview.

The team brings the patient to the city’s isolation facility at the Sto. Niño Hospital if asymptomatic and referred to the Baguio General Hospital and General Center if the patient exhibits symptoms or having other health risks.

                Based on the interview with the patient, the contact tracing team will identify and locate the close contacts that will be subjected for health assessment, swab tests or the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and quarantined for 14 days.

 Places frequented and visited by the patient are also ordered to disinfect their premises.

                Panes said they are using a four-step method of identifying and classifying contacts that will be subjected for swab tests and quarantine. The first step called “F0” is the Covid-19 patient while “F1” are the direct and close contacts of the patient particularly family members and individuals living in one household with the patient, co-workers, people together with the patient for at least six hours in closed spaces like bus or plane, and those whom the patient have chatted within 15 minutes without protection particularly face mask.

Considered general contacts are: F2 - those contacts of F1 while; and, F3 – those contacts of F2. The process of contact tracing is repeated once a close contact tested positive of the virus.

 “All contacts that meet the qualification of being close contacts of F0 have to be quarantine for 14 days even if they tested negative of the through swab test,” Panes said.