VIGILANCE Policemen stationed at checkpoints along roads leading to Baguio City inspect travel, health, and identification documents presented by motorists as entry to the city has been restricted due to the spike in COVID-19 cases. The summer capital has again suspended nonessential travels with its neighboring towns in Benguet to contain the spread of infection. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO
MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-two percent of Baguio City’s population who are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination has so far been fully inoculated, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said Saturday.
“Sa amin, dito sa second dose, we have already reached around 52 percent. Sa first naman, nandoon na kami sa sa 70.3 percent, so medyo mataas na rin ang ating first dose,” he said at the Laging Handa public briefing.
(For the second dose, we have already reached around 52 percent. For the first dose, we have already reached 70.3 percent, so the percentage of vaccinated with a first dose is already high.)
According to the Baguio City government, once 60 percent of the eligible population are vaccinated over the next two to three weeks, the vaccination of those aged 12 to 17 with comorbidity will “hopefully” start.
“We have enough vaccines to do that,” said Magalong.
According to the mayor, Baguio City, known as the country’s summer capital, now has 4,400 active COVID-19 cases. He noted that this is higher than the 200 to 300 active cases previously recorded in the city. Meanwhile, almost 500 of the total confirmed cases have died.
The city now records an average of 260 new cases per day. Magalong said the number of daily cases is decreasing but at a slow pace.
He believes that the “exponential” increase in cases was driven by the COVID-19 Delta variant.
“We are doing our best to control this pandemic. We are experiencing a lot of cases. We are experiencing a surge dito sa (here in) Baguio. In fact, ‘yung (the) increase is not linear, talagang (it is really) exponential,” he said.