Increasing Covid-19 cases in Baguio 'no cause for alarm'

EVEN with the increasing number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Baguio City, the Department of Health (DOH)-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) continues to advise the public not to panic.

Dr. Ruby Constantino, DOH regional director, cited the city's expanded contact tracing in every households.

"The increasing number of cases in Baguio City is due to its expanded contact tracing to which it does not only trace within the household but have expanded which is an advantage because the more we identify those positive, the more that we can prevent further transmission," Constantino said.

Octa Research Team earlier said Baguio City needs to further intensify its efforts in testing, tracing and isolation to reverse the increase of transmissions at the community level.

The research team also recommended the need to implement more aggressive and effective localized lockdowns with stricter border controls to suppress further viral transmissions.

Constantino said Baguio City has tested 13.9 percent out of the 376,106 total population.

"The target is at least two percent higher that is why the more you test, the more you will be able to identify. It does not necessarily mean that in places having low number of cases may not have any cases there, it is possible that they are just around the corner and they have not been tested and it is a very good move for Baguio City to test more," Constantino said.

As of October 21, DOH-CAR reported 2,798 confirmed cases, having a 37.69 percent increase from the 2,032 cases recorded in October 7.

Baguio City, as of Thursday, October 22, has 1,749 cases, followed by Benguet with 624, Kalinga with 186, 92 in Abra, 80 in Ifugao, 26 in Mountain Province, and 21 from Apayao.

Thirty-one have already died due to Covid-19 in the region, which has a fatality rate of 1.11 percent, while 1,937 have recovered from the disease, or a 69.23 percent recovery rate.

"Every time we receive the data for Baguio City, it is specified in every confirmed case of these are suspect or contact traced and there have been a great number of contact traced which is advantage to the city because it can easily locate this positive case and decide on locking down a specific area so there is no need to panic because we know where the cases are and where the outbreak is, and we can immediately act on it," Constantino added.

To date, six percent of the 1.8 million population in the region were already tested.

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