Baguio eyes start of economic recovery

The Covid-19 alert level 1 status of Baguio from March 1 to 15 may be considered as the start of the city’s recovery from the losses it incurred due to the pandemic.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the city government will again engage the stakeholders, particularly the business sector, to be able to create an enabling environment for the city’s recovery efforts.
“We have lined up meetings and discussions with the private sector to help them recover. We really need to bounce back in the new normal,” Magalong said.
With the continued decreasing trend in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city after it peaked in January, the city then under alert level 2 started removing the cap on tourists entering the city to establish the city’s tourist threshold.
Magalong said they have defined parameters on how to establish the threshold, such as manageability of vehicular and human traffic, especially in areas of convergence, air quality, and crowd count.
Despite the eased restrictions, the mayor advised residents and visitors to continue to wear face mask, observe proper physical hygiene, and practice the minimum public health standards.
While allowed to observe the most relaxed protocols under alert level 1, Magalong said control in the capacity of establishments should still be observed.
“While the alert level allows us to operate on 100 percent capacity, we will slowly implement it,” he said.
Since Feb. 20, the city has been logging below 30 Covid-19 cases daily, a consecutive single digit cases from Feb. 26 to March 3, and days of zero death cases, sustaining its decreasing case trend since its latest highest peak in January.
It has so far recorded 41,395 Covid-19 cases; 826 deaths; 40,474 recoveries; and 95 active cases as of March 3.
Vaccination is also ongoing daily, bringing the city’s fully vaccinated adult population as of March 1 at 277,854 and 292,443 administered with one dose; 33,253 fully vaccinated 12 to 17 years old and 35,117 with one dose; and 6,870 five to 11 years old who have received their first dose. – Hanna Lacsamana