BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Coronavirus infections in Baguio are expected to continue to peak until this week, the city government said yesterday.
“Last week and this week are critical periods in the current wave, wherein cases are expected to further rise and reach the highest point,” Mayor Benjamin Magalong said during a meeting last week.
“After reaching the peak, we expect to attain and maintain a plateau for another two weeks before hopefully going down,” Magalong added.
The cases exceeded the 500 mark on Jan. 13 and 14, and climbed to 613 on Jan. 15.
On Jan. 18, the infections reached 646, which became the new daily record high in the city.
Magalong said the situation remains under control, citing the city’s action plan and its 22 key measures activated to address the contingencies.
He said one bright spot in the fresh wave believed caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant was the low number of severe and critical cases.
“There is less hospitalization and less demand for oxygen and critical medicine than during the onslaught of the Delta variant,” he said.
The number of cases, however, remained overwhelming, with the average daily cases reaching 403 as of Jan. 17.
City health officer Rowena Galpo said the case positivity rate rose to 44.10 percent during the second week or from Jan. 9 to 15 after the number of infections increased to 2,475 from 927.
During the first week – or from Jan. 2 to 8 – the positivity rate was only 22.5 percent.
The weekly infection growth rate decreased to 5.19 percent from 8.74 percent, but it remained above the threshold of one percent.
The average daily attack rate soared to 61.3 from 12.3 percent, while the two-week growth rate decreased to 1,305 from 1,977 percent, Galpo said.