ALL crowd drawing events in Baguio City has been put to a halt.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Friday, January 31, canceled the grand opening of the Baguio Flower Festival and the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (Caraa) to ensure health safety of all.
Magalong announced the cancelation of both events as a proactive measure to combat the emerging 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The Caraa has yet to be rescheduled to a later date.
The chief executive has set aside possible economic backlash from the postponement and said it will be the least of his concern in the wake of the health scare.
The Department of Health (DOH)-Cordillera assures the region still remains free of the 2019 novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the three Chinese students who sought medical attention from a private hospital for allegedly having contracted 2019–nCoV turned out to be negative.
City Health Officer doctor Rowena Galpo explained the three Chinese students who are studying in a language school complained of alleged difficulty in breathing and might have contracted 2019-nCoV but were given a clean bill of health and were allowed to go back to their studies.
She said the initial symptoms of the illness include fever, lower respiratory infection, cough, among others, that will manifest ten to 14 days after close contact with an infected person.
Galpo narrated that based on the revelations of the Chinese students, one of them had been suffering from difficulty in breathing while his two other companions who just arrived from China sought medical attention from a Baguio-based private hospital for similar complaints but that it was found that these symptoms are outside those observed of the seventh strain of the coronavirus.
Magalong added all events which will draw crowds in the next three weeks are canceled.
Health officials also announced the monitoring of visitors from abroad in accordance to guidelines set by DOH as well as origin and signs and symptoms of all who enter the city.
Precautionary measures are being taken by the city as well as hotels on what to do and how to protect residents and tourists.
Magalong said the city is not under a lockdown but is instead preventing large crowds to gather as a measure to assure health.
The flower festival instead will have simple opening rites without the grand parade and drum and lyre competition which was set to pit eight competing schools and showcase five cultural groups.