This city has maintained its record as having the lowest coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infection rates in the country, even as the local government continues to intensify the vaccination drive.

Dr. Ted Yu Jr., City Health Office (CHO) medical officer, said a report from the Department of Health (DOH) also cited Northern Mindanao as one of the five regions in the country having the lowest incidence of Covid-19 cases.

“In the other regions, particularly the National Capital Region, there was an eight to 10 percent increase in Covid-19 cases,” he said during Wednesday’s press briefing.

As of May 30, Yu said the city’s average daily attack rate is at 0.18 percent, while its two-week growth rate is at negative 53 percent.

“While the data may change by June 1, so far Cagayan de Oro City is averaging zero to one Covid-19 case daily in the past five weeks (and this is reflected) in our health care utilization rate of 1.28 percent,” he said.

As part of evaluation parameters, the alert level system takes into consideration a local government’s vaccination rate which the city is averaging well above 90 percent.

Having registered a low infection rate has allowed the Intern-Agency Task Force to retain the city’s Alert Level 1 status from June 1 to 15, as well as provinces in the region except Lanao del Norte, which was placed under Alert Level 2.

Meanwhile, Dr. Emma Pilar Imperio, DOH-Northern Mindanao (Region 10) family health cluster program manager, reiterated during the quarterly meeting of the Regional Development Council’s Communications and Advocacy Committee the need to intensify the Covid-19 booster vaccination.

Imperio said as of May 27, there are only 448,638 qualified individuals who availed of the booster dose, as compared to the targeted 3,688,897 in Region 10. (PNA)