Baguio variant cases 57; no Delta affliction / Tourists up

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGIO CITY – The summer capital has a total of 57 Covid-19 new variant cases as of July 7 of which 54 were Alpha (UK or B 117) and four Beta (South African of B 1351) variants. Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the Philippine Genome Center in its latest report detected 17 additional cases of Alpha and two more cases of Beta variants in the city.
    Age range of the new cases was from 10 months to 83 years old with ten female and nine male.  Four of the patients had died and 15 had recovered from the disease.
    As per the PGC biosurveillance report, no Delta (Indian) variant has so far been isolated but the mayor had warned of the likelihood that the dread type said to be more severe and more contagious will hit the country and the city at any time.
    He urged various sectors including the medical community to be proactive against the Delta type which is causing havoc in other countries by coming up with contingency measures to counter its protracted effects on the city’s health care system and response system.

“We have no Delta variant in the country based on PGC report but it may just be because we are not processing all specimens due to limited capability of our PGC complicated by the lack of reagents and ancillary supplies.  So we have to be prepared,” the mayor said.

The city government through the City Health Services Officer under Dr. Rowena Galpo mapped out strategies which include setting up more isolation facilities and beds in anticipation of increased hospitalizations due to the new variant’s propensity to cause more severe symptoms; expediting vaccination, intensifying compliance to the minimum public health standards, among others. 

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Tourist arrivals in the city has considerably improved last June but actual numbers remained below par.

Records of the City Tourism Office showed a total arrival of 12,030 visitors for June which according to City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo is a “big jump” from the previous months of April with a measly 515 and May with 2,189.

Mayor Magalong affirmed that the daily tourist data remained below the city’s target of 3,000 tourists daily even during weekends.

“We were looking at reducing our target number of visitors as a contingency measure against the possible surge in cases due to increased mobility and the threat of the Delta variant but our actual numbers are still low and are still manageable so we will just continue to monitor but we will be more strict in our border protocols,” the mayor said.    

Data from the Baguio VIS.I.T.A. (Visitor Information and Travel Assistant), the city’s online registration system for Baguio tourists and travelers showed a big disparity between the number of travel requests and actual arrivals.

For June, the city received more than 40,000 requests but the actual arrival was only 12,030.

“But this is a big jump from the previous month.  Obviously, Manila tourists brought in the number for June,” Mapalo observed.

The city began accepting tourists from the National Capital Region Plus when prohibitions were lifted starting June 1.

It hopes to further perk up the industry with the waiving of the test requirement for fully vaccinated individuals starting July 5.

Magalong however assured that precautionary measures will continue to be implemented to avoid transmissions.

 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.