CLOSE TO 3,000 AVAIL OF COMMUNITY TESTING

June 16, 2021 – Close to 3,000 Baguio City residents availed of the Aggressive Community Testing (ACT) program from June 9-13 in the city.

In the Management Committee (MANCOM) meeting held June 15 led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the Baguio City Health Services Office reported that a total of 2,834 individuals out of the 3,500 target took part in the testing activity using Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).

A total of 143 or 5.04 percent turned positive for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

For the LISTT (La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay)  areas, a total of 588 availed out of the 1,500 target joined the free testing with 49 or 8.33 percent positivity rate.

The ACT is s regular undertaking of the city government under Mayor Benjamin Magalong and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA)-John Hay Management Corp. to target groups considered vulnerable to COVID-19 infection based on the frequency of transmission.

Targeted in the city were government office employees, hotel workers, food handlers, construction workers, gym/spa/wellness centers/barber shop, church clergies/ministers/pastors/staff, drivers, business process outsourcing/customer service relations (BPO/CSR) workers and security guards.

The city’s testing rate, albeit higher than the national rate, is still below the testing requirement thus city needs to ramp up its testing capacity.

As of June 7, the city has conducted a total of 189, 943 tests and tested 124,241 individuals representing 33.17 percent of the city’s population. — Aileen P. Refuerzo