Davao City mayor warns public of possible surge in COVID-19 cases after holidays

FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—Despite the high vaccination rate among people in this city, Mayor Sara Duterte warned that another surge could occur after the holidays because of gatherings, parties, and other celebrations.

The mayor said the Misa De Gallo and Christmas celebrations were generally uneventful but she raised concerns about the gatherings inside households, where groups of people dining and mingling could speed up the spread of COVID-19.

“Since people are seeing that our cases are going down, we expect gatherings among households to rise,” the mayor said over the Davao City Disaster Radio during her special radio hour on Monday. “I asked the health group in our COVID-19 response cluster if they expect a surge next year and they were saying, yes, there will be a surge. We just can’t tell how big will it be and how deadly,” she said.

She added that the Davao City Task Force on COVID-19 was also learning about the experiences the previous year when there was a marked rise in cases after Christmas.

Duterte said she was told by the vaccine cluster that 1.3 million of the city’s population have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 1.11 million or 13 percent short of its 1.29 million population target for herd immunity were fully vaccinated as of Dec. 26.

She was told, however, that the surge of cases would still be likely after the holidays as the vaccine would only reduce the severity of the disease but not stop infection.

“Yes, there will still be a surge because the vaccine will only make the symptoms mild,” Duterte said she was told.

“What’s dangerous is when there are lots of mild and asymptomatic cases that will bring the infection to unvaccinated people and the vulnerable population,” she said.

She asked the public to keep wearing masks and observe the basic health protocols even at home during parties.

Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao

lzb