Baguio City records 10k cases this January

February 5, 2022 Metro BLISTT

Record 10,000 Covid cases for January as confirmed cases pass 40,000 mark Despite ending January with a measly double digit, the first time since January 6, the total Covid-19 cases hit a high of 9,988 and total confirmed cases passed the 40,000 mark, records from the City Health Office revealed.
With 80 new cases Monday, the city logged its fewest since the 52 during the Three Kings Day on January 6 even as cases appear to be tapering off since the 522 last January 22.
New cases dipped to 251 on January 23, then a four day stretch when the city recorded 300+ new cases that went down to 258 on January 28 before going up to 433 and down again to 196 on January 30 that reflects mayor Benjamin Magalong’s prognosis that the city may achieve a levelling off before the end of the month and a downtrend until the middle of February.
Baguio Covid cases peaked this month thanks to the more contagious but less lethal Omicron variant that led to the city logging 322 new cases a day.
That brought the total confirmed cases to 40,024 since the pandemic started in March of 2020. Recovery which started peaking on January 18 and overtook new cases on January 23 tallied 7,766 or a daily discharge of more than 250 patients which is only second to the 8,441 recoveries (272 daily) on October last year.
Total recovered patients from the virus is now 37,056, while 2,195 remain as active cases.
Fatalities from Covid-19 also peaked in the latter half of the month. From January 20, 37 deaths were logged, or more than three a day, or nearly 70 percent of the total recorded deaths for the month.
January has the fifth most number of deaths behind the 171 of October last year, 148 in September, 82 in April and 55 on May of last year.
The September – October surge was attributed to the Delta variant, while the April – May peaking was thanks to the Alpha variant of the virus. Total deaths from the virus is now at 773 or a 1.93 percent fatality rate.
Meanwhile, Baguio and five Cordillera provinces will remain under alert level three starting today, February 1.
Joining Baguio under the same alert level status are Abra, Apayao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and neighbor Benguet.
This as the Inter-Agency Task Force has placed the National Capital Region under Alert Level 2 as well as the provinces of Batanes, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal in Luzon, Biliran and Southern Leyte in the Visayas and Basilan in Mindanao. The alert levels will take effect until February 15, Sec. and acting spokesperson Karlo Nograles announced.
Pigeon Lobien/ABN