Baguio City’s Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) control measures are so far succeeding in keeping cases under control, a University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) statistician said.
Prof. Rizavel Addawe of the UPB Department of Mathematics and Computer Science told the Baguio City Inter-Agency Task Force led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong last Sept. 11 that the well-placed measures like the sustained expanded testing had been instrumental in preventing cases from rising at an exponential rate.
Addawe and her group who have been helping the City Health Services Office map out and interpret COVID-19 data said UPB COVID-19 study in April projected the city’s cases to hit 35 cases a day or a total of 2,258 as of September 10 if no interventions such as lockdown and pro-active testing are done.
In actuality, the city has posted a total of 415 cases as of September 10. Hence, the city has avoided about 1,843 prospective cases because control measures were put in place.
Addawe said the city’s present case growth rate is about 20 percent every two weeks and if this keeps, then the total number of positive cases is expected to double by December or even more if the city further increases its expanded testing and contact tracing programs.
She qualified that having increased cases or higher positivity rates is not a bad sign but this is a good indication that the expanded testing program has been effective in locating those who are infected.
“When we get more positive cases, it is better because we are testing the right people and that we were able to capture those who are infected and that is a good indication that we are doing well in our testing,” she said.
Dept. of Health Asst. Regional Director Amelita Pangilinan said the city has been compliant with all the COVID-19 program parameters of prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, integration and zoning containment with all its programs and systems set up proactively by the local government.
(Aileen P. Refuerzo)