Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong
BAGUIO CITY – Baguio is on its 9th day of maintaining a “flat curve” in its battle against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic after no new positive case was recorded, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said on Monday.
He said it was the ninth day since the city had its last confirmed Covid-19 case on March 28 and “if this trend keeps in the coming days then the city can claim to have truly flattened the curve or reined in the insidious disease."
"Until then, we should continue holding the line by sustaining our vigilance and not lapsing into complacency," appealed the mayor to his nearly 400,000 constituents to whom he partly credits the gains of the anti-Covid-19 campaign.
The “success” in maintaining a “zero new case”, he said, is due to the strong working link between the city government, national line agencies led by the Department of Health Cordillera and the Inter-Agency Task Force and the private sector.
Magalong added that "out-of-box" solutions like deviations from protocols like the early imposition of requirement on the wearing of masks, declaration of cases and contact tracing ahead of confirmation of positive cases and the patients' identity disclosure that facilitated early detection and prevented transmission.
City health officer Dr. Rowena Galpo, meanwhile, said: “Seemingly our enhanced community quarantine is effective. We have good contact tracing, so no transmissions as far as of today."
City Epidemiologist and Surveillance Unit head Dr. Donnabel Tubera- Panes, meanwhile, also expressed optimism that the contamination had been contained and contacts rounded up at the moment.
5th Covid-19 patient discharged
Meanwhile, a fifth Baguio Covid-19 patient was released on April 4, bringing the total recoveries to five from the deadly virus.
On Monday, Dr. Thea Pamela Cajulao, infectious disease specialist, said they hope to release two to three more patients who have recovered from the Covid-19 within the week.
Last Wednesday, Galpo announced that the first three who recovered are aged 55, 61 and 70, or an average of 62 years old, supposedly belonging to the risk group.
The average age of the five erstwhile patients is 62. Eight of the confirmed cases are still in the hospital and all are in stable condition.
A total of 14 persons have been identified and hospitalized in Baguio. Most of them have a history of travel except health worker Joel Junsay, who was then first to come out in the open and heeded calls of Magalong so contact tracing could be maximized.
After Junsay’s declaration, spouses Enrique and Jaysay Bactad, both 67, of Las Pinas City, also came to the open.
The fourth patient to reveal his identity is Rafael Serrano, 59, who came from New York, the worst-hit state in the United States where there are more than 90,000 confirmed cases. (PNA)
