In just 19 days, Baguio City has recorded more than 2,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 57 deaths.
It took Baguio nearly five months to breach the 1,000 mark in July last year and another three months to reach the 2,000. October was red light for Baguio when it experienced a then record high cases on a daily basis surpassed only this month by miles.
In what could be yet the most alarming stage in Baguio under the pandemic, 101 new cases were logged on Monday as the city breached the 2,000 mark for a single month with 2,099 cases or 110 new infections daily bringing the total confirmed cases here to 9,591.
It took only nine days to reach 1,000 cases for this month.
Worse, seven Covid related deaths were logged after a “quiet” Sunday, when there were no deaths traced to the virus, bringing the total here to 57 or three cases. Baguio has 181 Covid related deaths.
Baguio’s statistics for this month has been off the charts with nearly three deaths a day with the highest at nine and seven, logged on the ninth and seventh of the month respectively. New cases were relatively “low” on the ninth with only 30.
The highest single day new cases was at 227 logged last April 2.
“Nakakatakot sa dami ng cases sa buwan na eto (It is really scare due to the number of cases this month),” exclaimed city epidemiology and surveillance unit (CESU) chief Dr. Donabelle Tubera during a press conference recently.
Entering this month, Baguio had 7,425 confirmed cases which has ballooned to nearly 10,000.
The past three days, however, looked good with more recoveries than new cases logged by the City Health Office.
When Baguio started its aggressive testing on April 15, Baguio’s recovery has swollen to 138 then 214 on Friday and 177 new recoveries on Saturday. These were days when the number hit three digits and the recoveries outnumber the new cases. The only time that the city hit that mark was on the 11th with 109 recoveries as against 83 new cases.
Recoveries the past 19 days have improved to 1,329 or nearly 70 patients are sent home on a daily basis.
Active cases, on the other hand stand at 1,305 down from the high of 1,460 on April 14.
Baguio and the six provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region has seen a surge in cases for the month of April which the Department of Health – Cordillera attribute to a breach in safety and health protocols.
DoH – Cordillera assistant regional director Dr. Amelita Pangilinan said: “the primary cause of the surge in cases is because of the people’s breach in protocols and disregard of discipline.”
“There are many who remove their face mask or do not use their face mask. There are those who attend a gathering without wearing a face mask,” she added.
Kalinga, Mountain Province and Ifugao for instance record a three digit new cases almost every day for this month.
Kalinga is the third Cordillera local government unit with most cases, 3,607, while Mountain Province trails it with 3,596, while Ifugao has 1,978 cases, many of which for this month alone.
Benguet had 62 new cases on Monday and 7,042 confirmed cases for the biggest Cordillera LGU.
Apayao and Abra remain to have the lowest cases with 802 and 455 with the latter recorded a single day high of 63 that alarmed Gov. Ma. Jocelyn Bernos.
Bernos has ordered a stop on all gatherings, while also stopping dine in at restaurants. The province has been declared under modified enhanced community quarantine since April 12 until the end of the month.
With 409 new cases Monday, the region has a total of 27,079 confirmed cases, some 7,000 were logged only this month.
