THE Department of Health (DOH) is closely monitoring the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) trend in Baguio City after 260 cases were reported in the last 14 days for a positivity rate of 13.5 percent, more than double the 5 percent threshold set by the World Health Organization.
In a virtual press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said: “We have seen a slight surge in cases of COVID-19 in Baguio City. This is the reason why we are monitoring them for the past two weeks already.”
The positivity rate is the percentage of those who tested positive for the deadly virus out of the total number of individuals tested. DOH data showed Baguio City has recorded a total of 3,206 cases so far, with 336 cases still active.
“Baguio is very aggressive in testing and contact tracing their constituents. So that could be one cause of the high positivity rate,” Vergeire said. “However, we still cannot discount the fact that many are turning out to be positive.”
She said one possible cause of the spike in cases is the opening of the borders of the city known as the country’s summer capital.
“They opened their borders from nearby areas. This caused an increase in their cases,” said Vergeire.
Benguet had 101 infections yesterday as the DOH reported 1,400 new cases and 98 more deaths.
In its latest bulletin, the DOH said Davao City had 90 new cases, Quezon City 82, Rizal 75, and Laguna 56 as the total number of infections in the country rose to 442,785.
The number of fatalities rose to 8,670 for a case fatality rate of 1.96 percent, according to the DOH.
There were 139 new recoveries, meaning the number of survivors has risen to 408,790. The DOH said this means that 92.3 percent of patients had recovered.
Less the deaths and recoveries, the DOH said there are 25,325 active cases in the country, accounting for 5.7 percent of COVID cases in the country.
Of the active cases, 84.8 percent are mild cases, 6.6 percent are asymptomatic cases, 5.5 percent are critical cases, 2.8 percent are severe cases, and 0.32 percent are moderate cases.
The DOH called on accredited COVID-19 testing laboratories to submit their complete reports daily so a more accurate picture of the pandemic in the country could be established.
Vergeire said they are issuing the appeal because several laboratories, about 10 to 12, have failed to submit their mandatory reports on a regular basis.
Vergeire said among the reasons why laboratories fail to submit timely and complete reports are lack of sufficient manpower, need to recalibrate and configure their IT systems, and giving way to disinfection of facilities.