City to close operation of isolation units anew
The city started closing the operation of a number of isolation units following the continuous decline in Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 cases over the past several weeks to save on costs and to maximize the use of available personnel for other health-related activities to contain the spread of the virus.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo disclosed that the isolation units to be closed by the end of the month include the 102-bed Laurel Dorm 2 which is devoted as a quarantine facility for health workers, the 30-bed Ferioni apartment, and the Eurotel.
She added the following will remain – 350bed Baguio City Community Isolation Unit based at the former Sto. Nino hospital and the 12-bed central triage located within the compound of the Baguio Convention Center (BCC).
Based on the latest data from the City Health Services Office, the hospital care utilization rate of the different public and private hospitals in the city further dropped to around 42 percent while the occupancy rate of the isolation units dropped to less than 10 percent.
According to her, the personnel assigned in the isolation units that will be closed will be tapped to assist in the ongoing roll out of the vaccination for the children aged 5 to 11, help in the triaging of the increasing number of travelers to the city in the city’s central triage unit and other tasks that will be determined by the health workers.
Further, some of the personnel who were pulled out from the various isolation units will augment the city’s limited contact tracers following the non-renewal of contracts by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) of the previously hired contact tracers.
Last Monday, the city government coordinated with the health department the roll out of the vaccination of the children aged 5 to 11 in some selected vaccination centers in the city while pursuing the vaccination of the children aged 12 to 17 and the administration of booster shots to the eligible adult population.
The city also rolled out the Resbakuna Sa Botika to bring closer to the people the available vaccines through vaccination services in selected pharmacies to entice more people to be vaccinated.
Despite having exceeded the 70 percent herd immunity of the city’s eligible adult population way ahead of the other local governments in the country, Baguio City continues to entice unvaccinated individuals to be inoculated in the different vaccination centers as part of its efforts to allow the gradual and safe revival of the economy by having more people jabbed and protected from the virus.
The c city government targeted to vaccinate at least 281,000 or 95 percent of the city’s 295,000 eligible adult population which is more than the prescribed 70 percent herd immunity aside from the pediatric population that will be vaccinated from those that are aged 12 to 17 and 5 to 11 with the recent roll out of the age category. – Dexter A. See
