Baguio notes steady DIP in Covid-19 positivity, growth rates

Maintaining its ‘low risk’ (level 1) status in terms of Coronavirus Disease 2019 cases, positivity and growth rates in the Summer Capital continue to decline towards the Christmas break according to a local health official.

In the management committee meeting of local officials, Dec. 6, led virtually by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, City Health Officer Rowena Galpo said Covid-19 positivity rate here for the past two weeks decreased from 21.88 to 17 percent while growth rate during the same period dipped significantly from (-)7 to (-)31 percent.

The infectious disease’s average daily attack rate in the city also went down from 5.6/100,000 to 4.3/100,000 while a downturn was seen in its weekly infection rate from 0.93 to 0.79, she revealed.

She said the city’s hospital critical utilization rate increased slightly from 27.97 to 28.5 percent while its isolation facility bed occupancy decreased from 5.24 to 3.37 percent (9/267).

The local health chief said, however, that the average RTPCR tests done in the city for the past two weeks declined from 231 to 119 tests per day.

Meanwhile, Galpo said Omicron continues to be the dominant Covid-19 variant of concern, by type, in the city causing 72 percent of cases followed by Delta, 16 percent; Alpha, 8 percent; and the Beta variant infecting 4 percent of patients. – Gaby B. Keith