Baguio City, Benguet and areas in CAR under Alert level 2 from December 1-15, 2021

Baguio City and Benguet are now under alert level 2 based on the recent resolution released by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of emerging infectious diseases (IATF) under resolution no. 151-C series of 2021.

Baguio City is among the highly urbanized cities that has its alert level reduced from alert level 3 to alert level 2. During the past weeks, Baguio City has seen a decrease in cases and an increase in vaccinated individuals. Having completely vaccinated more than 70% of the population may have triggered the decrease in cases.

 

A Relaxed restriction

With the number of daily cases greatly reduced from hundreds a day a few months ago to only a single digit in the past days, Baguio City, along with other provinces and cities in the Philippines relaxed their restriction and border control. One of the biggest among the relaxed restriction is the voluntary wearing of face shields in low-risk areas. In Baguio City, tourism has also peaked, as many vaccinated individuals are from other provinces have booked their vacation in Baguio City. As of today, the City Tourism office increased the number of tourists allowed per day from 2000 to 3o00.

No room for complacency due to Omicron

While it is a fact that there might be a decrease in the number of cases, a new threat is brewing overseas. South Africa has reported the discovery of a new variant with the given name of Omicron. The World Health Organization has announced that Omicron is a variant of concern which means that it has the possibility of high transmissibility among population. As of today, scientists are still looking into how strong this variant is in causing severe COVID-19. In just several days many nations have already reported cases of Omicron variant in their country which prompted many to close their borders from travelers coming from South Africa.

Areas in CAR under Alert Level 2

• Baguio City
• Benguet
• Abra
• Kalinga
• Mountain Province
• Ifugao

The province of Apayao is placed under Alert Level 3. The National Capital Region (NCR) is also currently under Alert Level 2.