Due to another spike of Covid-19 cases, Baguio has again closed its doors to non-residents travelling for leisure or other non-essential purposes starting Sept. 3 to 19, regardless of the community quarantine classification of the place of their origin.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong issued on Sept. 1 Executive Order 106, s. 2021,which detailed the temporary modifications on the city’s prevailing quarantine restrictions as earlier provided in EO 89, s. 2021.
During the period, only authorized persons outside residence are allowed into the city for inter-zonal travel, subject to health screening protocols and presentation of complete travel documents.
All persons 17 years old and below are still ordered to stay home, except for permitted recreational or leisure activities in outdoor areas and for indispensable appointments or transactions that require physical presence or medical appointments or emergencies.
The EO also revised the hours of the liquor ban. Sale, distribution, and serving of liquor and other alcoholic beverages is temporarily prohibited from 8 p.m. up to noon of the following day.
The order said with the confirmation of cases of local transmission involving the Delta variant of the Covid-19, the city saw a 30 percent increase in the number of confirmed cases and an 85 percent increase in the number of individuals aged 17 and below who got infected starting July.
The city also recorded an average of 87 cases per day since the third week of August.
From the total number of cases recorded, 162 have been confirmed variants of concern by the Philippine Genome Center – 107 Alpha variant, 49 Beta, and six Delta variant cases.
Using link analysis tools and contact tracing, a total of 4,521 linked cases are being monitored – 3,378 linked cases for Alpha, 881 for Beta, and 262 linked cases to Delta.
“With case clustering now being recorded in households and workplaces, there is an immediate need to impose the additional restrictions to halt widespread community transmission and to enable our response and action teams to re-group for better offensive against this continued health threat,” Magalong said in the order.
Benguet is also implementing strict border controls and has tightened the requirements for returning residents and non-residents. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
April 20, 2024
