The City Government remains in complete control of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation despite the sharp increase in the number of cases in the past ten days.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong assured residents there is no need to worry because the city has a grasp of the ground situation.
“I can say that we are okay and even better off because we are aware of our situation and we know what is happening on the ground. Hindi yung bulag tayo kung ano ang nangyayari. We know where our cases are coming from because most of them resulted from expanded testing and contact tracing. Random cases were few and are being tracked immediately. We are in the right direction,” he said.
He said the city still has high testing rate and contact tracing efficiency ratio and is focused on managing the situation through all control measures pursuant to the PDITR (Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat, and Reintegrate) strategies embodied in the National Action Plan 2.
“We keep on emphasizing the government movement ‘Disiplina Muna’ and Baguio has been looked up to because of its responsible and disciplined citizenry. We hope we can sustain it. Bida po ang may disiplina,” he said.
The City Health Service Office under Dr. Rowena Galpo said majority of the new cases as of Sept. 28 came from two major clusters in barangays Sto. Niño-Slaughterhouse with 56 active cases and Lower Lourdes Subd. , 83 active cases, 56 of whom were police trainees.
Being contacts of the main cases, the new patients had been isolated early on and had had no contact with the community.
Of the 847 total number of cases as of Sept. 29, 832 or 98.2 percent were either asymptomatic or with mild and moderate symptoms and only 15 or 1.7 percent were severe to critical.
Most patients were in the age groups of 20-29 and 30-39 and females slightly outnumber males by only one percent.
More than half of the total number of cases was determined through contact tracing and 50 percent of the cases came from 15 barangays only.
For the seven-day moving average, the city expects an average of 31 cases a day in the next seven days.
The CHSO said early detection is important not only in preventing transmission of the virus but also in the management of the patient.
“Early consultation means early detection and early administration of treatment means lower risk of mortality,” City Epidemiologist Donnabel Tubera said.
“Our ultimate target is to have low fatality which is the impact indicator of all the activities that we have been doing,” she added.
As of Oct. 1, the city has 14 fatalities out of a total of 977 cases or 1.4 percent. – Aileen P. Refuerzo