Baguio eyes herd immunity before December

EARLY CHEER Christmas can now be felt in Baguio City’s Camp John Hay where Yuletide trees and “Belen” (Nativity scenes) like these decorations at the John Hay Forest Lodge are already in place on Friday, October 22, 2021. Baguio is monitoring a drop in infections, hoping to take in fully vaccinated tourists soon. —VINCENT CABREZA

BAGUIO CITY — This city is expecting a Yuletide season that is completely shielded from the COVID-19 once the local government inoculates up to 90 percent of its population by December.

About 173,000 residents who make up 61.5 percent of the city’s 281,000 eligible population have completed their jabs and at least 64,526 residents are still awaiting their second doses as of Wednesday, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said.

Although herd immunity is achieved if 70 percent of the eligible population is vaccinated, Magalong said the city aimed to inoculate more than 90 percent until the end of the year.

The city has accelerated its COVID-19 immunization program to combat the more contagious Delta variant of the virus following the arrival of vaccines purchased by the local government and the steady flow of donations, Magalong said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Vaccination sites have eased protocols to speed up the inoculation of the other eligible residents, including drive-through sites for public utility drivers.

Magalong said minors 15-17 years old had been asked to register in preparation for their inoculation. Initially, 69,540 residents aged 17 years old and younger were excluded from the target vaccination group.

Fulfilling the December target would bring relief to the city’s public and private medical front-liners who have been dealing with a surge of cases in September, the mayor said.

Travel ban

As of Thursday, the city’s number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,071, down from 3,309 patients who were being treated at Baguio hospitals. Baguio has so far logged 28,633 cases since the pandemic struck last year, with 609 deaths.

Vaccinating most, if not all, Baguio residents by year-end would also help raise the confidence of prospective tourists who may be allowed back to the city as early as next week if the downtrend in active COVID-19 cases would continue, Magalong said.

The Baguio Tourism Council last week asked the city government to lift its ban on leisure travel for vaccinated tourists to resuscitate ailing businesses, arguing that the city’s screening process at the borders and the vaccination of Baguio tourism workers should be sufficient safeguards.

But the mayor said government doctors and data analysts need to make sure the slowdown of transmissions was steady, as the numbers could quickly change because of the Delta variant.

The entire Cordillera region has registered 130 cases of the Delta variant and 46 of these were traced to Baguio.