CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy ordered local health authorities to implement measures to keep COVID-19 cases from surging further as the city prepares for face-to-face classes and its citywide fiesta this August.

Uy gave the order as the number of active COVID-19 cases in Cagayan de Oro doubled in the first two weeks of his term.

Cagayan de Oro counted 36 active COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, July 12, twice as many compared to what city hall registered a day before Uy officially assumed the mayoral post.

Data showed that the city registered 18 active COVID-19 cases and only one new case on June 29, the last full day of then-mayor Oscar Moreno’s administration.

Moreno led Cagayan de Oro during the first two crucial years of the pandemic that was characterized by community lockdowns and strict public health protocols.

With the easing of the public health rules and the business-as-usual environment in the city now, the number of single-day COVID-19 cases increased from one to 15 in 13 days.

Cagayan de Oro’s COVID-19 deaths, however, remained at 941 as of Tuesday.

Data also showed the number of COVID-19 patients in the city’s hospitals more than doubled in two weeks. From six on June 29, the number of hospital patients who contracted the virus increased to 14 on Tuesday.

“We have taken note of the upward trend in the city and elsewhere in the country. But the situation is not alarming. We are still on top of the situation,” Uy told Rappler on Wednesday, July 13.

He said he ordered the City Health Office (CHO) and the local COVID-19 task force to make preparations ahead of August’s scheduled face-to-face classes, and the merrymaking during the citywide Feast of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of the predominantly Catholic city.

For one, the pre-fiesta Search for Miss Cagayan de Oro, an annual tradition that saw a hiatus for two years because of the pandemic, is expected to be a crowd drawer. Its organizers said this year’s much-awaited pageant would be staged the way it was done during pre-pandemic times.

Uy said city hall would closely monitor the COVID-19 cases and would make decisions based on the situation.

Councilor George Goking urged Uy to order the strict enforcement of the face mask rule and other minimum public health protocols allowed under the least strict COVID-19 alert level as defined by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Cagayan de Oro has remained under the Alert Level 1 category.

Goking said the relatively high COVID-19 vaccination rate in Cagayan de Oro cushioned the impact of infections, but the level of public complacency vis-à-vis the COVID-19 threat was disturbing.

“I see a lot of people outdoors without face masks. Even at city hall, many don’t use face masks anymore,” he said.

Goking also called on Uy to order a review of measures that were put in place by city hall during the first two years of the pandemic, and implement proven effective measures.

Another councilor, Ian Mark Nacaya, said the Uy administration has continued the COVID-19 program initiated by former mayor Moreno, and the local COVID-19 task force has remained active.

“All systems are in place,” Nacaya said. – Rappler.com