BAGUIO CITY –– A hundred people have been infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since March with the addition of two women on Tuesday, July 28, after Baguio suffered a surge of 29 infections over the weekend, the city information office said.
At least 47 patients are being treated in local hospitals, including the two women in their late 50s, who tested positive for the disease on Tuesday. But 51 others have recovered and have been discharged.
Describing the event as a possible “second wave” of transmissions, Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Monday, July 27, said analysts anticipated a rising trend in infections when epidemiologists and health workers began testing ten percent of the population to determine the extent of COVID-19 infections in the city.
Each time tests are made, seven percent turn out to be infected, “which is alarming,” Magalong said.
But in a July 27 advisory, the mayor assured the public that the city’s health and isolation facilities have been prepared for the spike in cases.
The mayor said 26 percent of these cases “are frequent travelers.” He said 40 percent of the new cases were tracked down through contact tracing, while “43 percent were identified through expanded testing.”
Baguio’s contact tracing teams can identify 37 close contacts of one infected patient in a day and may expand that to 60 or even a hundred to include neighbors, drivers of the public vehicles that they used, and vendors who sold them food or other items, Magalong said.
These teams are composed of health workers, data analysts, and police officers, who have the investigative skill to locate people, and to draw out information, particularly from traumatized patients.
“(But) because of our present situation, we really need to institute more stringent measures,” Magalong said, beginning with tighter border controls, the reimplementation of a total Baguio lockdown on Sundays, and the reinstatement of the liquor ban.
Magalong said some of the patients were construction workers, who have, on occasion, sat for a drinking spree using only one glass, based on accounts secured by contact tracers.
The mayor said officials also monitored gatherings in the neighborhoods in violation of the 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew hours.
Baguio recorded 14 infection cases on Saturday, it’s highest number of transmissions in a single day. Fifteen residents were added to the list on Sunday, prompting the city government to restore a policy limiting households to two market days and shopping mall days each week to control movement.
Baguio remains under a moderate-level modified general community quarantine, which allows more people to go to work or operate businesses. But many government offices and shops employ people from neighboring Benguet towns, so Magalong again required people, who have essential work or transactions in the city, to submit to triage examinations.
The mayor urged private offices and businesses to conduct routine disinfection procedures. The Baguio City Public Market would be closed on Sundays for an extensive cleaning, he announced.
The market was subjected to a massive three-day clean up last week. Satellite markets serving 128 barangays will also undergo disinfection twice.
Banks have also been asked to periodically test all their employees.
All residents have been enjoined to inform their barangay leaders should they or any of their family members experience flu-like symptoms so village health workers could test them for the virus, Magalong said.