A mild rebound in Covid-19 cases can be expected in the city next week.
But Mayor Benjamin Magalong is optimistic the city can have a better Christmas celebration this year with the gains in vaccination and continued cooperation of the populace on health protocols and strict implementation of restrictions.
“Hopefully talagang bumaba na s’ya kasi alam n’yo naman every time we open our economy, our tourism industry maraming umaakyat and according to our triage, meron pa rin tayong nade-detect na positive cases kaya iyon ang binbantayan natin,” the mayor said.
“But the good thing is we have high vaccination rate and we have a highly compliant community so we hope na bababa pa lalo ang cases. Our prognosis is that our cases will continue to go down and we foresee a better, a more lively and pleasant Christmas in the City of Baguio,” the mayor told the media Nov. 8.
The mild “saddle” projection was reported by the mayor during his meeting with the Management Committee meeting Nov. 9 based on readings from the various risk indicators and mobility data of the city.
“We will be expecting a slight saddle next week. Hopefully, it will not go beyond the reproduction number threshold of 1.0,” the mayor told department heads to alert concerned departments and offices.
Before the pronouncement, department heads considered temporarily retiring some of the facilities used at the height of the Delta variant scourge and cutting down orders for oxygen to cut on costs after cases decreased following the Delta variant-driven spike.
The mayor said they will continue to watch the developments and act proactively.
Saddling refers to the instance when cases go on a downtrend then settles some to form a plateau before suddenly shooting up again.
The city reopened its tourism industry to help the economic sector recover but it makes sure that it is done slowly, safely and surely, the mayor said. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
