By Kayla Dy
COVID-19 cases continue to decrease in the city.
Assistant City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (SECU) Officer Michael Crisologo of CHO-1-Ilagan City, said COVID-19 cases in the area continuously decreased because of safety preventive measures that they followed. He said that the main reason for the decrease is the successful roll-out of vaccines.
Ilagan City’s vaccine coverage is now at 103.99% for the first dose. Based on the 126,514 population of the City, he said that they already achieved coverage of 99.33%. The second preventive measure they followed is having check-point areas or Barangay Health and Response Team (BHRT) and Barangay Isolation Unit (BIU) per barangay. CHO-1 handles 35 barangays in the City.
The third preventive measure they followed is having a Lab Molecular which was made by the City Government of Ilagan.
Because of the lab, they don’t have to ship specimens of swabbed residents to SIMC, CVMC, or to Baguio. Instead, they established their own laboratory which made it more convenient and effective when tracking COVID-related patients in the city. The city gives free COVID-19 medicine to patients who have the severe or critical condition.
Two active cases for CHO-1 as of today, July 12, 2022, were recorded. One in Brgy. Aggasian and another in Brgy. Alibagu. Among the 35 barangays that CHO-1 supervises, the cumulative cases already reached 3,508 including the 2 who tested positive today. And there are 3,419 who recovered.
Eighty-seven cumulative deaths have been recorded this year.
While the COVID-19 cases are not that high at the moment, Crisologo advised the public to still be careful and that the people of Ilagan City should not feel complacent. He reminded the public to always wear their face masks, practice social distancing and avoid crowds, especially for children below five years old because they don’t have vaccines yet. #
