Mindanaotoday.com | City gov’t: Oro’s vax target on track
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Staving off the dire impacts of the Philippine economic crises, primarily due to Covid-19, necessitates the full opening of the economy, along with the escalation of the campaign for vaccination and strict compliance to minimum public health standards.
Data from the City Health Office (CHO) indicates that Cagayan de Oro is on track in attaining the nationally determined target of inoculating up to the first booster dose, 90% of the senior citizens and 50% of the general population in the first 100 days of the new administration.
If these will be attained, the city will qualify for level 0. Currently, the city is under level 1.
As of August 11, 2022, those given their 1st booster dose comprised 81.4% of senior citizen population and 38.65% of the city’s general population.
“We are on track, but we need people to really go out and seek the vaccines,” said Dr. Rachel Dilla, city health officer.
The city’s vaccination teams have gone house-to-house in rural barangays and have brought mobile vaccination teams in the barangays and resumed vaccination operations in key malls in the city.
Mayor Rolando “Klarex” Uy said the prime objective of his administration is to start up the economy.
People need to have jobs, and for jobs to be available, businesses have to open, he said.
To help businesses recover, the Uy administration has offered fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to businessmen, like the condonation of fines for delinquent payers of local taxes. He also promised not to increase local tax rates.
“Magpa bakuna gyud, kay kung bakunado, protektado ang trabaho. Kung bakunado, abri ang negosyo,” Mayor Klarex Uy enjoined all Kagay-anons.
The mayor has ordered the Regulation and Control Board (RCB) to ensure the strict compliance of business establishments to to minimum public health standards.
“Nagpasalamat ako sa RCB, sa mga negosyante ug sa City Council sa hiniusang paningkamot nga masumpo ang Covid-19,” Uy said, noting the City Council committee on trade and commerce, headed by Councilor George Goking, had a successful dialogue with the business sector on August 12 on the strict implementation of minimum public health standards.
From single digit daily cases in June, double digit daily cases have been observed starting in the middle of July, with the highest daily cases of 34 on August 4 and August 10.
Twenty-four news cases have been reported on August 14, bringing to 204 the active cases; with 94 confined in hospitals and 110 in temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
Despite the rise though, the city’s Critical Care Utilization Rate has remained low risk at below 30%.
While the recent increase needs to arrested the soonest possible time, the city has managed far more drastic rise in cases.
In January this year, when the city was under level 3 – or with the second strictest quarantine restrictions, daily cases spiked to three digits, peaking at close to 350 cases in a day. Cases went down single digits in March.
Looking at the risk factors, “the January to present data on Covid 19 in the city would indicate that we are better off now at level 1, compared to January when we were at level 3 — with very strict quarantine restrictions,” said Allan Porcadilla of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department.
“Hitting vaccination targets and strict compliance of minimum public health standards are major risk management factors that we need to work on and sustain in order fully transition to the new normal,” Porcadilla added.
Meanwhile, Uy signed Executive Order (EO) 038-2022 otherwise known as “An order granting the resumption of the operations of licensed cockpit operators in the City of Cagayan de Oro, providing for its guidelines and penalties and for other purposes.”
The new EO is in accordance with DILG Memo 2022-003, dated January 19, 2022 which allowed resumption of cockpit operations in areas under level 2.
Cagayan de Oro is now under level 1. EO 038-2022 provides, among others, that only those having Covid 19 vaccine booster shots will be admitted in cockpits. Face mask at all times has also been ordered inside cockpits. (CDO CMO Communications Group)
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