BAGUIO CITY – The City Health Service Office (CHSO) reported a low of only 17 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases here, even as it also recorded to more deaths on Thursday, January 28.
Of the new cases, five were contact traced, while five were traced through expanded testing.
CHSO said the latest fatalities were both men, 85 and 75 years old, that added to the total of 94 fatalities in the city.
There are still 535 actives cases, and 4,265 recoveries out of the 4,894 confirmed cases, as of January 28.
CHSO Chief Dr. Rowena Galpo said they were standing by their report that there were only 18 cases on January 27 and swore by the integrity of their data on COVID-19 cases.
"We maintain that our data are accurate since these come from the ground and are subjected to validations. We have always maintained transparency in our reporting of cases as emphasized by our city mayor from the very start," Galpo said.
She made this assessment after the Department of Health (DOH) posted in its case tracker that 121 new cases were posted in Baguio City on January 27.
Galpo said data on positive cases were generated from the two authorized molecular laboratories in the city, Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center and Parkway Mediclal and Diagnostic Center.
These laboratories submit results to the DOH-CAR which in turn submits these to the city through the CHSO.
The CHSO then gives daily reports after conducting validation of the cases which explains why at times there were discrepancies between the reports of the city and the DOH-CAR.
DOH Regional Director Ruby Constantino clarified that the report that came out on national television placing Baguio City's COVID-19 cases for January 27 at 121 did not come from their office.
She said, since January 1, the agency has no data showing cases reaching 100 in Baguio City. "I do not know where the national news got their data as definitely they did not come from the DOH-CAR," said in her post.