By Liza Agoot/ Philippine News Agency
BAGUIO CITY – The city on Saturday (Sept. 18) reported 411 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, the highest single-day rally, bringing the total active cases to 3,053, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region said.
The figure was the highest after the Sept. 11 single-day record of 289 since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
“The high tally was caused by dumping of results after test results accumulated at the molecular laboratory due to the volume of specimens being processed daily,” Mayor Benjamin Magalong said in a statement.
The city’s swab samples are processed either at the DOH-managed Baguio General Hospital or at the private molecular laboratory Parkway.
Magalong said over 2,000 tests are now being conducted daily amid the surge in cases.
“Because of the Delta variant, the city made it mandatory to swab all close contacts while aggressive community testing is also being done continually,” he said.
Magalong earlier said they were expecting that cases would further increase as the city’s contact tracing link-analysis using technology application showed there were already about 700 carriers of the Delta variant who were close contacts of those who have been officially reported by the Philippine Genome Center in the first week of September.
The city government also conducts aggressive testing using the antigen test where positive cases need to be quarantined while waiting for the result of their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
With the increasing Covid-19 cases in the city, the Health Services Office has urged residents to strictly observe health and safety protocols. (PNA) – bny
