BAGUIO CITY – The country’s Summer Capital recorded 68 more cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Tuesday, September 29.
The number of new cases listed duplicated Monday’s number of infections which was the city's highest count in a day.
The City Health Services Office (CHSO) said more contacts of current cases were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Tuesday, a majority of whom again came from the two major clusters in two barangays in the city.
Of the total, 65 were contacts of previous cases, and 16 came from the Slaughterhouse Compound cluster, which previously had 56 active cases, and nine from Barangay Lower Lourdes Subdivision.
The remaining patients belonged to other household and barangay clusters with fewer cases.
With this, Mayor Benjamin Magalong immediately issued Executive Order No.136-2020 “Regulating Social Gatherings for the period of September 30 until October 14,2020”.
Magalong said, following a recent clustering of COVID-19 cases in different barangays, data gathered from contact tracing showed that a common factor in these incidents was that the patients attended and participated in social gathering that took place in the home or in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation conditions, and with little adherence to our basic healthful practices.
The order said private social gathering in close quarters or indoor venues shall be temporarily regulated according to the following guidelines:
Social gathering to celebrate or commemorate personal or family milestones, such as birthdays, wedding, anniversaries, gathering to mourn departed loved ones, other non-work related gathering held in hotels, conference halls, shall be allowed, provided the venue is inspected prior to the event by personnel of CHSO and approval secured from the Office of the City Mayor.
These events or gatherings held at home shall be allowed, provided prior notice is given to barangay officials and basic health practices are observed at all times.
Magalong said attendees of these events be limited to immediate family members who are not immunocompromised or who do not have underlying health conditions.