The city government convened last May 21 various organizations to plan the city’s next strategies to improve people’s compliance with the minimum public health and safety standards to enhance Baguio’s Covid-19 response.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said while the city’s infection control and case management systems on Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) continue to hold up, the city needs to continually fine tune its strategies and attain a “whole-of-government-and-whole-of-society approach” in addressing the continuing health crisis.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña, who convened the participants representing the medical, social services, engineering and institutional, enforcement, and risk communication and public information sectors, said the planning session will zero in on the compliance to the minimum health and safety protocols being the possible “missing link” to achieving the city’s goal of suppressing the transmissions.
This is in the light of recent findings of a survey done by a group of professors and physicians showing Baguio residents are not adhering to the minimum public health protocols.
“All the while we thought that we are okay, that we are compliant but it turned out otherwise. Apparently, what we have been doing is not enough because the study found that a big number or 72 percent of the respondents were not able to comply,” dela Peña said.
He said with the strategies and measures that will be crafted, the city hopes to foster more consciousness and adherence to the minimum health protocols among residents.
In the planning session, the groups were apprised on the city’s Covid-19 situation by City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit Head Donnabel Panes and on the actions and best practices undertaken by the city presented by City Planning and Development Coordinator, Arch. Donna Tabangin.
Each group is expected to submit its plan of action tailored for the sectors it represents specifying the strategies, activities, timeline, and resources needed and other details that will work for the achievement of the targets. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
