Baguio’s Covid-19 cases spiked the past five days with 694 new cases after a high 205 on Saturday, the second most in a single for the city, but the five day total during this month has broken the 641 set on the same period in April when the city recorded an eye popping 3,046 cases for the month.

But that is paled by the cases logged in Apayao, the region;s smallest local government unit in terms of population, after it recorded a record single day high of 244, breaking Baguio’s high of 227, and a five day total of 736.

More, the province declared under modified enhanced community quarantine by the national Inter-Agency Task Force has now the third most number of infection since March of last year with 6,119 leapfrogging Kalinga which has 5,963 recorded cases.

“It will only get worse,” Baguio mayor Benjamin Magalong said earlier last month and just like that the cases started to rise entering the third week of the month when the city logged its first triple digit at 104 on the 20th.

Four more days saw Baguio logging 115, 103, 103 and the then third highest of 150, on Sept. 22, 26, 27 and 31, in that order.

Baguio’s 1,968 cases for the month of August is also the second high after April’s 3,046 or a daily average of 101.53, which is significantly lower than the five day average this September with 138.8.

Magalong’s earlier pronouncement that it will get worse later this year especially when they file for their candidacy for the 2022 election on October is fast becoming a reality especially with the Delta variant of the virus already here.

The City Health Service Office recorded cases are practically in the three digits the last five days with 116, 126, 151 then a “low” 96 on the first four days of the month.

Baguio’s active cases which dipped to a low 353 on August 11 from a high of 1,453 on April 21 has risen to 1,248 from 870 at the end of August as new cases outpace recovery anew. August records show 1,968 new cases against 1,463 recovered patients or a 63.48:47.19 ratio of new cases versus recovery.

Baguio has already breached the 18,000 mark with 18,196, the CHO reported.

With the surge, Magalong has imposed additional restrictions for the next 16 days until September 19 by signing Executive Order 106 last September 2, including, suspension of non-essential travels from all areas regardless of quarantine classification.

Magalong’s EO also adjusted the liquor ban on sale and consumption of liquor from 8 PM to 12 noon the next day and extended the home restrictions for children 17 years old and below.

Magalong said: “There is a need to impose additional restrictions to halt widespread community transmission and to enable our response and action teams to regroup for better offensive against this continuing health threat.”

Meanwhile, City Epidemiological and Surveillance Office head Dr. Donnabel Tubera-Panes has raised the alarm once again and asked people to take their vaccines.

She said: “We can really go back to better normal if we vaccinate our high risk people, our senior citizens. Let’s go for 100 percent senior citizens vaccinated.”

As of Friday, the city has fully immunized 96,815 residents, while 150,512 have received their first dose.

Apayao Surge, Third Most Confirmed Cases

But Apayao’s case is very much alarming as the smallest province which is home to 124,366 souls as of the 2020 Philippine Statistics census zoomed past its bigger neighbors – Kalinga (229,570), Ifugao (207,498) with 5,329 confirmed cases and Mountain Province (158,200) with 5,043 total cases.

Abra, the region’s third biggest local government unit with 250,985 people, has the least with 2,245 confirmed cases even if it was the first LGU to register the first case in early March last year.

But Abra, which was declared under ECQ by Gov. Ma Jocelyn Bernos on September 1 until tomorrow, has logged one of the highest cases for the first five days with highs of 138 on Sunday and 131 on Thursday for a five day total of 379. Amazingly, on Friday, the Department of Health – Cordillera tabbed a single case in the province with the most number of municipalities with 27.

Benguet tallied 442 the first five days with a high of 100 on Saturday and 98 and 94 on Sunday and Thursday, respectively,

Kalinga has 273 with highs of 77 and 75 on Saturday and Friday, respectively, while Ifugao had high of 46 on Sunday for 153 total. Mountain Province has the lowest cases with 82 with the highest at 38 on Friday.

The region’s five day total of 2,808 with a high 756 on Sunday brings the total cases to 54,583 of which more than a third of that come from Baguio with 18,259, per DoH – Cordillera record.

About 20 percent of that come from Benguet or 11,625 confirmed cases.

On active cases, Apayao ranks second to Baguio with 1,282 as recovery rate is a low 78.67 percent, way below the regional average of 88.98 percent.

With 954 active cases, Benguet beats the regional average with 89.15 percent, while Abra with its 607 active cases thanks to the five day surge, has the lowest recovery rate of 70.96 percent.

With its 428 active cases on 5,440 recoveries, Kalinga has one of the best record with 91.23 percent, Ifugao which has 274 active cases is second best with 93.84. It has 5,001 recovered cases.

Mountain Province with its 4,780 recoveries and 173 active cases for a region topper of 94.78 percent.

Of its 970 recorded deaths, Baguio and Benguet account for more than 67 percent with the city having 360 and the region’s biggest LGU having 305 deaths. The two have the highest mortality rate of 2.62 percent for said province and 1.97 percent for the city.

Kalinga has 95 deaths or mortality rate of 1.59 percent and below the regional average of 1.78 percent. Mountain Province, which has 89 deaths, falls below the average at 1.76, while Ifugao with its 53 deaths has less than one percent.

Abra has a relatively high mortality rate at two percent with its 45 deaths, while Apayao comes last with 23 deaths or .38 percent mortality rate.

At least three percent of the region’s 1,767,960 population has been infected with the virus with Baguio having the biggest at 5.42 percent as opposed to Abra which has less than one percent, 0.89 percent to be exact, of its total population.

The smallest LGU of Apayao is second with 4.92 percent of its population contracting the virus, followed by Mountain Province with 3.19, while Kalinga, Ifugao and the biggest LGU of Benguet fared better with 2.7, 2.67 and 2.52 percent, in that order, and below the regional level.