Baguio seeks suspension of in-person classes in med schools due to variant threat
DRENCHED Baguio residents ignore heavy rains and the cold on Thursday morning as they waited in line for hours hoping to get vaccinated at a designated center in a local shopping mall. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO
BAGUIO CITY—Local officials are seeking the suspension of in-person classes in medical schools here as part of measures to prevent the transmission of the more contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 that was first detected in India.
The request made by Mayor Benjamin Magalong would be sent to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) following a July 16 meeting of the city school board, said Antonette Anaban, chief of the city disaster risk reduction and management office, during a Wednesday briefing.
As early as April, Baguio universities with medical programs resumed classes for allied medicine subjects that required students’ physical participation. These schools heeded all precautions set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“But these health requirements were made before the threat of the Delta variant became prevalent,” said lawyer Althea Alberto, Magalong’s executive assistant, in the same meeting.
A recent list from the CHEd includes Saint Louis University among medical schools that have been allowed to resume in-person classes here.
Worst-case scenario
Aside from the proposed cancellations of in-person classes, Magalong announced additional protocols designed for a worst-case scenario because of how countries like Indonesia and India suffered from the Delta variant, Alberto said.
These include border tests for traveling minors, and an inventory and a subsequent stockpiling of essential COVID-19 medicine, equipment and oxygen supply.
As of Thursday, Baguio hospitals had not recorded any Delta variant case but had treated 67 variant patients, 58 of whom had the Alpha (United Kingdom) strain while nine were infected with the Beta (South Africa) variant, said Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, Cordillera assistant director of the Department of Health.
The tally of variant cases in the Cordillera has risen to 191 since the first Alpha cases were detected in two provinces in the region in December last year.
The region had logged 47,476 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, with 1,286 classified as active cases. Total COVID-related deaths in the region reached 788.
Ramped-up vaccination
The city health services office (CHSO) also ramped up its vaccination program to protect more people from Delta and other variants. As of July 21, 133,689 doses had been administered to 82,253 residents.
The city’s vaccination centers on Thursday drew crowds owing to fears that vaccines would run out.
Despite torrential rains, people maintained long lines leading to three vaccination centers even after they were informed on how many could actually receive a shot based on the supplies for the day.
Some of the people who showed up were not scheduled to take their first or second doses, so the CHSO advised them to follow their schedules.
Pangilinan said the Cordillera, including Baguio, had been allotted supplies from five vaccine brands, with about 500,000 doses. The first batch of 11,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines that Baguio purchased had been delivered to the local government, the city information office said.
—VINCENT CABREZA INQ
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