DOH confirms Baguio's first two Omicron cases

Baguio City has recorded its first two cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant, according to the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday.

The first case is asymptomatic and tested positive on December 15 as a close contact of another patient with no travel history outside the city in the past two weeks.

The second case, which was symptomatic, underwent testing on December 22 and received its genome sequencing results confirming Omicron on January 15.

Baguio recorded its highest daily infection rate on January 18 with 646 new cases, surpassing Mayor Benjamin Magalong’s forecast of 400 to 500 daily cases.