City’s Covid-19 positivity rate ups as growth rate dips

City Health Services Office (CHSO) head Dr. Rowena Galpo delivered a mixed bag of good and not so good news when it comes to the Summer Capital’s latest Coronavirus Disease 2019 situation.

In the management committee meeting of local officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong at City Hall, Nov. 15, she reported that while the city remains to be at low risk (level 1) status, its Covid-19 positivity rate leapfrogged from 18.57 to 26.24 percent for the past two weeks.

The city’s average daily attack rate during the same period also increased from 4.6/100,000 to 6/100,000.

She added, however, that the city’s two-week growth rate nosedived from 44 to 41 percent and its weekly infection rate dipped from 1.60 to 1.20.

Baguio’s hospital critical utilization rate shot up from 19.79 to 30.87 percent while its isolation facility bed occupancy upped from 5.6 to 5.99 percent (16/267).

Galpo disclosed that the city’s average tests (RTPCR) during the two-week span slightly decreased from 108 to 102.

She said omicron remains to be the dominant variant of concern in the city infecting 70 percent of Covid-19 cases followed by delta, (17%); alpha, (9%); and beta infecting four percent of cases. – Gaby B. Keith