Echoing the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong is encouraging residents to get their first and second booster shots as an added protection against the Covid-19 while continuing to adhere to the minimum public health standards.
Despite Baguio’s very manageable Covid-19 situation at present, the mayor has assured the city government and health officials are continuously on the move in monitoring and managing cases.
“Most of our current cases are mild and asymptomatic with no severe infections so far. However, we need to monitor this latest B.5 subvariant since it is 18 times more transmissible than the other variants but infections have been mild so there is no need to panic,” the mayor said.
City Health Services Officer Rowena Galpo said the city continues to be at low risk status in terms of infections.
The city’s positivity rate for the past two weeks is 7.8 percent; average daily attack rate is 4.4/100,000; a zero percent two-week growth rate (219-220); and a weekly infection rate of 1.04.
As of July 18, the city’s hospital critical utilization rate is 8.44 percent (32/379) and isolation facility bed occupancy at 12.73 percent (35/275) while average tests done in the past two weeks is 271.
Baguio continues to have a robust supply of vaccines.
The city currently has a total vaccine supply of 82,545 with Pfizer for 12 years old and above at 41,586 doses.
The city government still has 25,460 doses of AstraZeneca; Pfizer for five to 11 years old, 10,730; Moderna, 1,490; and 3,279 doses of Sinovac.
As to the city’s Covid-19 variants of concern, by type, as of July 2, most cases (39 percent) are infected with Omicron; Delta, 34 percent; Alpha, 18 percent; and the Beta variant with nine percent of the total infections.
The Department of Health is pushing for a 90 percent vaccination coverage for primary series of the country’s senior citizens and a 50 percent coverage for first booster of the general population on or before the first 100 days in office of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Oct. 8.
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