March 29, 2024

Authorities are mulling the possibility of making it mandatory for students in Baguio City to declare their travel history upon their return on March 23 before they are allowed to the schools, City Health Officer Rowena Galpo said last week.
“We leave it to the schools. They can do that as a precaution,” Galpo said in a press briefing last week on the coronavirus disease-2019 (Covid-19).
The city government earlier has suspended classes in all levels in public and private schools from March 13 to 22 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the Covid-19.
Several students have returned home to their respective provinces during the class suspension.
Dr. Paul Quitiquit of Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart said the students can fill up a form on where they traveled before they can be allowed entry in the schools.
“It will make it easier for hospitals if they have tracking of who came from where,” he said.
He also said educational institutions can advise students to be checked up at triage areas in hospitals to determine if they contracted any respiratory infection.
Ferdinand Tamulto, chief planning and development officer of the Office of Civil Defense in the Cordillera, said the travel declaration can be done like what Abra is doing.
Tamulto said Abra’s directive is a precautionary measure, which will allow local officials to identify people in case there is a need for contact tracing.
“It’s a precautionary measure that can be looked into considering that Baguio has a lot of tourists and transient students,” he said.
On March 12, Abra Gov. Jocelyn Bernos ordered all people entering the province to fill up a form stating their names, addresses and where they are from including information on their travel history.
On March 16, the Health Department reported the first Covid-19 case in the Cordillera.
Persons under investigation in the region subjected to the 14-day quarantine in health facilities are from Abra, with 14 PUIs; Apayao, five; Baguio City, 55; Benguet, 17; Ifugao, one; and Kalinga, four; and Mountain Province, eight PUIs.
Of the total number, 53 are currently admitted and 51 have been discharged, among them is the lone PUI from Ifugao.
The age range of the PUIs is 10 months to 81 years old. – PNA with reports from Hanna Lacsamana