‘Baguio Covid cases down but worst may not be over’

By Jessa P. Samidan

BAGUIO CITY – Covid-19 cases are going down in this capital town but the  worst may not be over.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong urged the public to not be complacent with health protocols despite the downtrend in Covid-19 cases recorded in the recent weeks.
     He said, while Baguio City and the whole country was able to tame Covid-19 omicron local transmission, medical journals predict the next may be more deadly and more contagious.\

“There is still a huge threat and this means we cannot be complacent,” Magalong said.

City Services Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said Baguio City listed a total of 41,242 Covid-19 cases as of Feb. 17 with 96.94 percent recovery rate equivalent to 39,979.

However, a total of 811 individuals mostly with comorbidities have died due to the virus.

The city has a total of 503 variants of concern as of Feb. 12 after the Philippine Genome Center reported 31 additional omicron cases on Feb. 11 and 36 more on Feb. 12 traced to the city.

The breakdown on variants of concern in Baguio City is as follows: 117 Alpha; 52 Beta; 222 Delta and 112 Omicron.

While the Omicron surge was controlled in 28 days, the average daily attack rate (ADAR) is still high at 28 percent which is beyond the seven cases per 100,000 individual’s threshold the government has set for high-risk classification.

 “Our goal is to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases daily to single digit with sustained implementation of minimum public health standards,” Mayor Magalong said.