AS the national government projects the country’s shift to the ‘new normal’ next month, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno said city residents should do their part to expedite this transition by completing their vaccination and sustaining their compliance to minimum public health standards.
“It had been proven through scientific data that vaccination slowed down the surges (through faster recovery) and so it’s crucial that we all get vaccinated. The bigger challenge is to stop the transmission of the virus so there would be fewer cases,” Moreno said amid reports that daily Covid-19 cases in Cagayan de Oro City dropped by less than 50 in the past two days and recoveries numbered in triple digits.
From 29 cases logged as of Dec. 15, the City Health Office (CHO) reported that Cagayan de Oro City logged 44 new Covid-19 cases, one death, and 165 new recoveries as of 10 pm of Feb. 16. Of the 44 new cases, about 17 are local index cases, two are local cases with links, 22 are APORs (authorized persons outside the residence), one inmate, one returning city resident, and one death said CHO medical officer Dr. Ted Yu Jr.
Moreno said like the rest of the country, Cagayan de Oro City must ‘learn to live with the virus’ in order to expedite the transition to the ‘new normal’ or Alert Level 1. An Alert Level 1 status would ease most restrictions except for the wearing of face masks which vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. told national media ‘would be the last to go.’
“Eventually, all of us would have to learn to live with the virus (as was done in other countries around the world),” Moreno said.
Moreno cited the findings of the Department of Health (DOH) detailing the 32 latest cases of the Omicron variant found in the city to support his contention that city residents need to remain vigilant against Covid-19 and its other variants.
While saying that all of them were declared by DOH as ‘clinically recovered’, Moreno explained that this development meant that vaccination and compliance to health protocols remain the keys to eventually defeating the virus and ending the pandemic.
As of Feb. 15, Cagayan de Oro City achieved an 86.53 percent vaccination rate to top all local governments in northern Mindanao. Only Camiguin province ranked above the initial 70 percent vaccination target set by the DOH with 76 percent while the provinces of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon remain below 70 percent with 64 percent and 66 percent vaccination rate respectively.
Moreno ordered the deployment of vaccination teams in Misamis Oriental to help speed up the vaccination there. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
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