No Covid spike during Panagbenga celebration — Official

Luckily, the Summer Capital did not experience a spike in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases during the recently concluded Baguio Flower Festival or Panagbenga but only a slight increase and that these were “very mild” infections.

This was disclosed by city administrator Bonifacio Dela Pena, March 6, during flag-raising rites at City Hall where he said that despite the city’s closure of its triage area, it still maintains a community isolation facility at the former Sto. Nino hospital.

“Even before the start of this year’s Panagbenga celebration, we have already anticipated an increase in Covid cases due to the expected influx of visitors and we made sure that we were prepared and will be able to handle any eventualities,” he said.

Fortunately, he added, there was no significant jump in Covid cases during the Panagbenga extravaganza even after the conclusion of its main crowd-drawing events, the street dancing and float parades, “possibly because most of the parade participants and visitors were fully vaccinated.”

He pointed out that the city has maintained its Level 1 status, the lowest Covid-19 alert level, which he assured the local government is very ready to manage.

“Currently, on the average, the number of Covid cases in the city has remained stable where cases have not gone too high or too low but just in the middle even during the Panagbenga celebration,” Dela Pena said. – Gaby B. Keith