"We were expecting this post holiday surge, because of the mobility, mass gatherings in markets, malls, etc. during the Christmas and New Year season," said Department of Health-CAR Assistant Regional Director, Dr. Amelita Pangilinan in a text message.
This is a record high number of Covid-19 cases in a single day, which raised the region's active Covid-19 cases to 1,093.
Mountain Province logged a record high of 84 cases on Thursday to bring its total to 285, with 125 active cases. The province has 159 recoveries and one death. There are 57 test results in the province that are still pending.
Other cases were also recorded in Baguio City, 74; Kalinga, 69; Benguet, 64; Ifugao, 17; Abra, six; and Apayao with one case.
Pangilinan said 55 percent of the cases on Thursday are asymptomatic, 36 percent mild to moderate, while others still subject to confirmatory tests.
The DOH case tracker also shows the emergence of new areas where a clustering of cases was recorded -- a department store in Baguio City that recorded 21 cases, the Baguio City community isolation facility with six cases, the Foyayeng cluster in Bontoc Mountain Province with eight cases, among the miners at Tangalang Balbalan in Kalinga with nine cases, at Poblacion Balbalan with 11 cases, and the Philippine Military Academy with 101 cases.
These clustered areas including other individual cases were contact traced that resulted in the ballooning of cases in the region.
In a social media post, Mountain Province provincial health officer Dr. Nenita Lizardo said "the contributory factors to the upsurge of cases were family gatherings, drinking sprees, inconsistent and improper use of Personal Protective Equipment and non-adherence to quarantine and isolation protocols," the provincial health officer also raised concern of the lack of facilities due to the surge in cases."
Mountain Province's capital town Bontoc posted 57 new cases -- 15 in Sabangan, five in Sagada, four in Sadanga, two in Bauko, and one in Paracelis.
The DOH-Cordillera reiterated the importance of avoiding the 3C’s-- crowded places, close contact settings, and confined spaces and to always observe the minimum health standards as clustering of cases in the different parts of the region emerge.
The Cordillera has recorded also 74 new recoveries on Thursday - - 24 in Benguet, 23 in Mountain Province, 18 in Baguio City, 8 in Kalinga, and one in Ifugao.
The region has 8,165 total recoveries and 130 deaths out of a total of 9,391 cases logged since March last year. (PNA)
By Liza Agoot