(PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)
BAGUIO CITY – The city government has expressed its gratitude to the national government for the support in its vaccination program, recording a high turnout among its population.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong, in an interview Monday after the flag-raising ceremony, expressed gratitude to the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 and to the Department of Health in the Cordillera Administrative Region for their strong support to the vaccination program and pandemic response efforts.
As of November 6, 89 percent of the target 281,000 adult population have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, Magalong said.
The city has a 366,000 population based on the 2020 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) census, with about 19 percent belonging to those aged 17 and below.
The city has also started vaccinating minors aged 12 to 17 last October 29, averaging 800 pediatric clients per day. As of the weekend, about 11,000 minors have received their first dose.
Magalong said he had requested for some 10,000 doses of vaccines but was assured of 27,000 doses of US-made Pfizer and Moderna, the brands that can be used for vaccinating the minors.
Magalong said the city has also expanded the vaccination program to both the minor and adult population from other areas in Benguet.
Managing the Delta variant
Magalong, who is also the contact tracing czar, said the city had effectively managed the highly transmissible and dominant Delta variant through effective contact tracing.
He said the city maintained a 1:15 tracing ratio, or a testing average of 250 per day.
"When we were having the surge due to the Delta variant, there were days we have 1,000 swab samples for RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test needed to be processed to assure that we will be able to isolate the carriers and prevent the further transmission of the virus," he said. "We were able to immediately manage the Delta variant in less than two months compared to the other local governments that took about three months to address the surge."
In his visit to the city last week, NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. lauded the city government for the vaccination accomplishment.
"Nakakaalis ng pagod na makita na dito sa Baguio walang vaccine hesitancy. Pati mga kabataan natin (It is a relief to see that there is no vaccine hesitancy in Baguio, even the minors) accept the vaccine without fear," Galvez said.
Galvez visited the city for the ceremonial vaccination of minors. (PNA)
