A 61-year-old doctor and three nurses were confirmed positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases here to 29, of whom 12 are health care workers.
In a report, Aileen Refuerzo, head of this city’s Public Information Office, said the four are employees of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC).
Two of the nurses are female and both 34 years old, while one is a 27-year-old male. The four nurses and the doctor are from BGH Compound, Camp 8 and Sto. Niño villages, and Wangal in La Trinidad.
“All appropriate courses of actions and standard operating procedures are currently being executed” for the Covid-19 patients, the report quoted Mayor Benjamin Magalong as saying.
Magalong has declared Barangay Sto. Niño under lockdown. The two other barangays were earlier closed due to confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Last Saturday, seven Baguio residents were found positive for Covid-19. An eight patient also tested positive but is a resident of La Trinidad, Benguet.
Four of those tested on Saturday are health care workers — two physicians, a nurse and a hospital clerk, all of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.
Meanwhile, City Health Officer, Dr. Rowena Galpo said the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city was expected. She warned that the number is expected to rise in the next days “as the city had begun conducting more confirmatory tests with the arrival of additional test kits and machines”.
Refuerzo said Magalong has urged residents to be extra conscious in observing health and safety precautions as he directed the sustained stricter implementation of the enhanced community quarantine rules on checkpoints, lockdown, curfew, physical distancing and wearing of mask, among others.
Refuerzo said the city will start the expanded risk-based testing using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmatory test kits on April 27, at 200 tests a day until May 15.
Refuerzo said, “The risk-based testing enables the locality to seek out those infected not only from the pool of suspected ones who manifest symptoms but also from the group of probable cases who are asymptomatic.”
“This enables early detection and thus leads to the prevention of the transmission of the virus,” she added.
Galpo said the city, as of April 24, had conducted 847 RT-PCR confirmatory tests and 411 rapid tests. (PNA)