EXECUTIVE Order No. 117-2021, signed by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, will be imposing heightened restrictions in Baguio City until Sept. 30, 2021. The EO was passed due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.
EO 117 includes: No operation for indoor gyms, fitness centers, sports venues; indoor recreation venues such as game arcades, bowling alleys, gaming and bingo outlets and similar establishments; and museums, cultural centers, libraries, archives and other indoor tourist and leisure attractions.
There would also be reduced seating capacity for personal care establishments (beauty salons, barber shops, spas and aesthetic centers at only 30percent; food and beverage retail with dine-in at 20 percent for indoor seating, 50 percent for outdoor seating; social gatherings (birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and the like held in hotels, conference halls and convention halls – “bubble” setting at maximum 30 percent of venue seating capacity provided venue is inspected and event is approved before the activity. All attendees must be fully vaccinated or if not must have negative RT-PCR test results within 48 hours prior to event
Meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions in a bubble setting are allowed at 30 percent of venue seating capacity. All attendees must be fully vaccinated or if not must have negative RT-PCR results within 48 hours prior to the event.
Religious services and worship gatherings will be allowed at 20 percent of venue seating capacity.
Necrological services, wakes, interments and funerals for those who died of causes other than COVID-19 will be allowed, provided that attendees are limited to immediate family members and must observe full compliance with public health standards
Government offices should be at 30-50 percent of manpower capacity depending on the nature of service provided.
Baguio’s healthcare facilities are now beyond capacity as the September COVID-19 surge continues to ravage the city’s populace.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said that the city’s public and private healthcare facilities together have reached an average 106.7 healthcare utilization rate (HCUR), which indicates that the current need for healthcare is now beyond the capacity of the facilities.
At the same time, the utilization of the city’s various isolation facilities has risen to an alarmingly high 75.9 percent average, with 698 of the total 920 bed capacity across the facilities already occupied.
The health care utilization rate represents the occupancy rate of the allocated isolation beds, COVID-19 wards, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, mechanical ventilators and authorized bed capacity.
Saint Louis University (SLU) Hospital of the Sacred Heart has a 150 percent utilization rate while Baguio General Hospital (BGH) is currently at 112.5 percent, Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital at 92 percent, Baguio Medical Center at 87.85 percent, and Pines City Doctors Hospital at 70.6 percent.
With hospitals stretched so thin and beyond full, Galpo said that they have had to have the isolation facilities accept severe but stable patients as well.
Meanwhile, according to Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the city will be using P20 million to add some 150 beds more to the city’s isolation unit at the Sto. Niño Hospital, which is one of the city’s primary isolation facilities.
