Baguio Covid-19 cases down; tourism to perk up

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – This summer capital may now be experiencing a downtrend in the number of Covid-19 afflictions but not for long. 

City Health Services Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo warned that with the increase in people’s mobility, they expect the city’s positivity rate to increase in the next ten days and along with it, the critical care utilization rate to also elevate in the next two weeks.

“Even if we are on a downward trend, let’s not let our guard down. We continue to wear mask, maintain distancing and hand washing, maintain proper ventilation, avoid crowd, close conversation and confined spaces,” she said.

Galpo said increased people movement is expected in view of events like Fathers’ Day celebration, onset of face-to-face classes, vacation of private schools and reopening to tourists from NCR-Plus and this will result to more transmission especially if people will not adhere to the minimum public health standards.

After facing a surge in cases in the past months, the city’s cases showed signs of decline while the recovery rate increased resulting to a low hospital care and isolation unit utilization rates.

Galpo said the daily attack rate decreased from 10.2 percent to 8.8 percent while the positivity rate also went down from 9 percent to 8.31 percent.

The same decreasing trend was noted in other indicators like the 7-day moving averages of the daily attack rate which started May 31 and the daily cases which started June 1.

   ***

Baguio mayor Benjamin Magalong has ordered the fast-tracking of vaccination of residents aged 65 years and above to prevent more Covid-19-related deaths.

The assistance of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) led by president Councilor Michael Lawana will be sought in tracking down residents belonging to said age group who have not been inoculated against the virus.

The ABC will help facilitate the registration of said individuals in the city’s online system as well as the scheduling of their vaccination in coordination with the City Health Services Office.

The mayor said the city has to step up efforts to curb the high incidence of death among its COVID-19 patients and one of the solutions is vaccination.

The Dept. of Health said all Covid-19 vaccines with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) can prevent hospitalization and death.

City Health Services Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said the city’s fatality rate has decreased in the past week with only three deaths recorded.

“This is an improvement because in the past weeks, we were recording 2-3 deaths a day.  Now it is three deaths in one week and for the past five days, we have had zero deaths which we hope to sustain,” Galpo said.

 As of June 9, the city has a total of 268 deaths with 2.1 percent case fatality rate.

Last May 10, the city recorded its highest fatality rate at 2.09 percent with 247 deaths out of 11,814 cases.

 Aside from vaccination, the mayor also advocated for early medical consultation at the first signs of COVID-19 infection among the residents as a deterrent to death.

 He said early consult would facilitate early detection and medical intervention and would prevent progression into severe stage and death.

City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) records showed more than half of the fatalities were aged 50 and above and that there were more males than females.

The highest number of deaths was recorded in the month of April with 85 deaths or more than two deaths per day.  Majority had comorbid conditions.

   ***

After months in the doldrums, Baguio City’s tourism industry is seen to perk up with the lifting of the prohibition for tourists from the National Capital Region Plus.

Mayor Magalong confirmed that tourist arrivals started to pick up in the first week of June with hotels and restaurants getting more bookings and sales.“We hope to be able to maintain and rejuvenate our tourism industry without compromising the health and safety of our people,” the mayor said.

City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said, “The first week of June until the weekend saw a surge in tourist arrivals after it was announced that Baguio can already accommodate leisure travelers from NCR+ starting June 1.”

“Data show that 1,406 tourists arrived from May 31 to June 6.  It’s more than double the previous week at only 535 arrivals,” he added.The city maintains its strict entry protocols for tourists that require negative test result for Coronavirus disease and registration with the visita.baguio.gov.ph portal.

Subsidized antigen tests are provided for tourists through the P1.8 million fund provided by the Tourism Promotions Board to ensure safety from Covid-19.

Magalong admits that the city’s economy heavily relies on tourism that is why incessant efforts are exerted to gradually and safely open the industry but with strict adherence to the implementation of minimum health protocols.

Tourist arrival records from the tourism office showed that only 515 tourists arrived in the city last April and 2,169 last May.March record was highest with 24,295 owing to eased up travel protocols that time.  February had 8,915 while January had 9,819 and December, 2020, 12,066 tourists.

The mayor said that last year alone, the industry suffered more than P3.5 billion losses in potential income with the drop in tourist arrivals seven times lower than that of 2019 or from 1.7 million in 2019 to just 232,000 in 2020.From April to June last year, the industry lost more than P1.6 billion in potential income while tourism workers lost more than P550 million in unrealized wages.

He said three accommodation facilities have already permanently closed while others in dire straits remain hopeful their businesses will recover as the city continues its efforts to revive the industry.