The unseen enemy hovers in Baguio City and may already be in the locality long before the declaration of community quarantine in March with belated health protocols.
This is the picture painted with the analysis of Covd-19 statistics of the City Health Services Office.
Of the 253 cases in Baguio as of Aug. 17, 84 percent had no travel history. They are mostly workers exposed to countless individuals, specifically drivers of public conveyances, bank employees, vendors and grocery store hands, among others.
Only 16 percent had history of travel. They are Baguio residents, according to CHSO Head Rowena Galpo.
“(Current data shows) most cases are due to local transmission,” she said.
Clustering of cases were mapped through geospatial analyses and shows major transmission happen in households (24 households with 45 individuals) followed by banks (12 establishments with 34 individuals) and in health facilities (eight establishments with 42 individuals).
There was also clustering of cases recorded at the public market, government offices, groceries, church, and in events, particularly birthday parties.
Galpo bared 65 percent of the cases do not show symptoms of the virus while 25 percent show mild symptoms – sore throat, cough, and fever; seven percent have moderate symptoms; three percent have severe symptoms while the eight deaths recorded comprise less than one percent of the cases.
The contact tracing efforts of the city government yielded 43 percent of the total Covid-19 cases while the expanded targeted testing of sectors considered as high risks comprise 34 percent of the cases.
High-risk sectors are categorized from health workers, police personnel, government and volunteer frontliners; and authorized persons outside of residences from market vendors, public transportation drivers, security personnel, bank employees, supermarket, and grocery personnel.
Only 20 percent of the cases undergone swab tests for exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 while the remaining three percent are those who have undergone mandatory testing prior to medical procedures.
Galpo said because of the expanded targeted testing and efficient contact tracing system, the city was able to locate infected patients.
“Because we know who they are, we are able to mitigate and limit the spread of the virus.” – Jessa Mardy Samidan
April 20, 2024
