Proactivity key to Baguio’s pandemic fight

BAGUIO CITY  – Proactivity has been the key in the city’s ongoing fight against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) .

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the city faced the pandemic challenge by making use of the crisis management principles anchored on proactivity and sense of urgency.

“We had to be proactive and thinking of the long-term.  We had to be forward-looking and always one or two steps in advance because acting late without any sense of urgency would lead to a big consequence,” he said.

He said this principle was applied on all the systems and strategies employed by the city in tackling the health crisis – prevention; detection through expanded testing, contact tracing; quarantine and isolation, treatment and reintegration.

He said with these systems in place, the city is prepared to face the continuing challenges as the city continues its balancing act of ensuring the health and safety of the people while reopening the economy while waiting for the vaccination program to roll out.

He said the city still has to contend with the economic blows dealt by the pandemic which the city is gradually addressing by sustaining the thrust for a slow, sure, safe economic revival program.

The health crisis had resulted to massive losses in the city’s tourism business, employment and city government revenues resulting to a big cut in the city’s budget for 2021. – Aileen P. Refuerzo