BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Government doctors were still tracking down food handlers as the likely source of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections that broke through the lockdown at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), afflicting about 50 cadets and personnel.
But Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, on Tuesday said in a radio interview that the food handlers “broke the academy’s COVID-19 bubble” last December and the virus transmission forced the academy to intensify its health protocols. Maj. Cheryl Tindog, the PMA spokesperson, did not say how many of the infected patients were cadets but she assured their parents that “their health and needs are being attended to by [the] PMA.”
Tindog described the other patients as “civilian human resource and organic military personnel.” Some of them had recovered from the disease, she said in a statement.
The cadets, who did not manifest symptoms of COVID-19, had undergone reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and were immediately taken to isolation centers.
Tracing, isolation
Epidemiologists have been studying areas in the PMA, such as the mess hall, where cadets and academy personnel often converge for their meals, according to the city health services office. “These cases were properly reported and coordinated with (Baguio) health officials. Their close contacts were traced and isolated, and further spread has been contained,” Tindog said. No new patients at the academy were recorded as of Tuesday.
More tests will be undertaken at the PMA using 2,000 kits to be supplied by the National Inter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19, Arevalo said.
PMA officials ordered the lockdown of the military campus as early as February last year to protect cadets from the pandemic. Those staying on campus underwent rapid antibody tests while under a bubble, which protected cadets for months. The academy also canceled all close contact activities and employed online modes of instruction.
Leak
But Tindog admitted that “one way or another, a leak in the bubble can occur during the day-to-day activities of the whole community.”
The infections at the PMA, including 15 new cases elsewhere in Baguio City on Monday, raised the total number of local cases to 3,979. City government records showed 297 of these cases were classified as active. Seventy deaths have been recorded.
At least 654 beds have been prepared for COVID-19 patients as the city government worked to increase the hospital bed capacity to 1,000 by the end of January. Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the local government was preparing for a “worst-case scenario” should a more infectious strain of COVID-19 from the United Kingdom reach the city.
But he said Baguio had managed the influx of tourists and travelers during the Christmas holidays when at least 800 daily visitors were recorded in the city.
—Vincent Cabreza