Opening windows decreases chances of getting Covid-19

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Keep those windows open to lessen your chances of contracting Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), health authorities advised.
    City Epidemiologist Dr. Donnabel Tubera of the Baguio City Health Services Office said the lack of proper ventilation either in homes or in places or work had been a common observation in most of the city’s COVID case clusters.

“Most have confined spaces, closed windows with electric fans running,” she said.

To eliminate it as a risk factor, people must regularly aerate or allow ventilation as one of the engineering controls agains

t the virus.

“Open windows, remove curtains, position your chairs, tables or beds near windows or areas near open spaces.  These are some of the engineering controls we can do,” she said.

At work, administrative measures can be employed by lessening the number of employees reporting for work and imposing work-from-home and other schemes.

She said some business establishments where cases occurred were observed to be allowing full workforce operations and this should be avoided.  

She explained that COVID-19 transmission depends on factors like the amount of viral load of an infected person, time element which is 15 minutes of close contact with the carrier, lack of distancing (safe distance is at least one meter), crowding, lack of ventilation and low immune system.Aside from these engineering and administrative controls, proper wearing of face masks and shields and other personal protective equipment, frequent hand washing, observance of cough etiquette are equally important.

Self-assessment is also a must where one must watch out for symptoms and do protective measures like wearing of PPEs, distancing and self-quarantine to avoid transmitting to their family members or co-employees. 

“Virus does not have brains but we have.  We can avoid it.  Know what to do,” she said.

Asked if the worst is over for the city, Panes said there is no assurance until vaccines are administered to make residents immune to the disease.

At present, 92 percent of the city’s total cases had recovered, according to Panes.

“Fatality is at 1.36 percent which means you have a 1.36 percent chance of dying from the virus while 98.63 percent lived,” she said adding that people with old age have 18 percent chance of dying from the virus depending on factors like immune system and living condition.

Fifty percent of the patients were in the 20-39 or the working age group.

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    Related to this, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the city government is now working on additional control systems to ensure strict observance of Coronavirus disease (COVID-1) health and safety measures during events.
    The city government was criticized for breach of health protocols during the opening of Christmas in Baguio celebration and the resumption of night market activities last Dec. 1.
    The mayor acknowledged there were lapses in crowd control during the Christmas tree lighting program which attracted a huge crowd starting at 6 p.m. and also during the night market operation which ran from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.   
    In his speech during the Christmas tree lighting program, he assumed full responsibility for the incident.  
    He also suspended the operation of the night market the following day to allow refining of the strategies.
    He said the city like any other local government unit is learning to cope with the new normal way and continues to do a balancing act between reopening the economy and protecting the people from the virus.
    “Right now, we will make sure that there are more systems in place to avoid a repeat of the incident,” he said.
City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo promised to do better in the next events that the city will stage saying the Dec. 1 incident was a “learning experience for us to do better and improve management next time.”
    “This is part of the healing process wherein people are looking of normalcy.  We can only do better next time,” he said.
    Market superintendent Fernando Ragma Jr. admitted that they failed to predict the size of the crowd that will venture into the night market.
     “We failed to forecast the spillover of the Christmas in Baguio attendees and we failed to anticipate the excitement of the locals to go out of their homes from months of being told to stay home,” he said.