Bracing for Covid-19 surge in Baguio as 3-K get free tests

 CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY residents were advised to prepare for another surge in Covid-19 cases by following health protocols. As of June 16, the city had a total of 13,204 cases, 654 of which were active with 12,278 recoveries and 272 deaths.
     Mayor Benjamin Magalong said indications of a brewing spike had been seen as early as last week based on data on the increasing mobility of people prompting him to call for strict compliance to minimum public health standards especially in business establishments, households and transportation.

“While we are continuing to reopen our economy, we need to be careful and the only way is to stick to our minimum public health standards,” the mayor said. 

"Adherence to the health protocols remains to be our best weapon.  When outside, always wear your masks and shields properly, observe physical distancing, wash hands and disinfect regularly and avoid crowded and enclosed spaces and close conversations,” he said.

“At home, wash your hands and change your clothes, disinfect frequently touched surfaces, observe physical distancing, monitor each other for flu-like symptoms and follow quarantine and isolation protocols if exposed to a positive case;

“Business establishments and public transportation like jeepneys and taxi should strictly observe the face mask and shield requirements among their customers and open their windows for ventilation,” he added.

City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said mobility indicator showed increased movement of people in the region especially in grocery stores, parks and work places.

“As we all know, increased mobility means increased positivity rate and health care utilization rate so we really expect our cases to rise in the next ten to 14 days,” she said.

The city’s cases had been on the downtrend since June 1 but at present, results of the case frequency measures used to assess the level of community transmission point to the brewing surge.

The 7-day moving average, average daily attack rate and two-week growth rate showed an increasing trend starting June 11.

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Close to 3,000 Baguio City residents availed of the Aggressive Community Testing (ACT) program from June 9-13.

In the management committee meeting held June 15 led by Mayor Magalong, the Baguio City Health Services Office reported that a total of 2,834 individuals out of the 3,500 target took part in the testing activity using Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).

A total of 143 or 5.04 percent turned positive for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

For the LISTT (La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay)  areas, a total of 588 availed out of the 1,500 target joined the free testing with 49 or 8.33 percent positivity rate.

The ACT is s regular undertaking of the city government under Mayor Benjamin Magalong and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA)-John Hay Management Corp. to target groups considered vulnerable to COVID-19 infection based on the frequency of transmission.

Targeted in the city were government office employees, hotel workers, food handlers, construction workers, gym/spa/wellness centers/barber shop, church clergies/ministers/pastors/staff, drivers, business process outsourcing/customer service relations (BPO/CSR) workers and security guards.

The city’s testing rate, albeit higher than the national rate, is still below the testing requirement thus city needs to ramp up its testing capacity.

As of June 7, the city has conducted a total of 189, 943 tests and tested 124,241 individuals representing 33.17 percent of the city's population.