The unseen enemy hovers in Baguio City and may already be in the locality long before the declaration of community quarantine in March with belated health protocols.
This is the picture painted with the analysis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVD-19) statistics per record of the City Health Services Office.
Of the total 253-cases in Baguio, as of 17 August 2020, 84-percent had no travel history. They are mostly workers naturally exposed to countless individuals specifically drivers of public conveyances, bank employees, vendors and grocery store hands, among others.
Meanwhile, only 16-percent had history of travel – they are Baguio residents, according to Dr. Rowena Galpo, CHSO department head.
“[Current data shows] most cases are due to local transmission,” she bared.
Clustering of cases were mapped through geospatial analyses and shows major transmission happen in households (24 households with 45 individuals) followed by banks (12 establishments with 34 individuals) and in health facilities (eight establishments with 42 individuals).
There was also clustering of cases recorded at the public market, government offices. Groceries, church and in events particularly birthday parties.
Galpo bared 65-percent of the cases do not show symptoms of the virus while 25-pecent show mild symptoms – sore throat, cough and some fever; seven percent have moderate symptoms; three percent have severe symptoms while the eight deaths recorded comprise less one percent of the cases.
The Contact Tracing efforts of the city government yielded 43 percent of the total Covid-19 cases while the expanded-targeted testing of sectors considered as high risks comprise 34 percent of the cases. High risk sectors are categorized from health workers, police personnel, government and volunteer frontliners, Authorized Persons Outside of Residences (APOR) from market vendors, public transportation drivers, security personnel, bank employees, supermarket and grocery personnel, among others.
Only 20 percent of the cases undergone swab tests for exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 while the remaining three percent are those who have undergone mandatory testing prior to medical procedures.
Galpo said because of the expanded-targeted testing and efficient contact tracing system, the city was able to locate infected patients, “and because we know who they are, we are able to mitigate and limit the spread of the virus.” (Jessa Mardy Samidan)