The City of Mati Incident Management Team is now preparing for the eventual arrival of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the city. This as the city has only one active case of Covid-19 as of January 3, 2022.
The city logs a total of 2,993 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 2,890 recoveries and 102 deaths.
According to Mati IMT commander Dr. Ben Hur Catbagan Jr., the Delta variant remains to be the dominant variant of concern in the city as well as in the entire province of Davao Oriental.
As part of the preparation for the latest variant of concern, the Mati IMT continues with their vaccination campaign to which a total of 86,706 Matinians have already been vaccinated or 80% of the target population of 107,424.
Of the 80%, 65% are fully vaccinated while 15% have received their first dose, as of January 2, 2022 data. Booster vaccination on the high risk population have already started that include senior citizens and those with comorbidities.
Health authorities expect a peak of the Omicron variant surge to happen starting January 15 until February 19 wherein daily cases could reach to as much as 20,000 to 40,000.
Here in the City of Mati, Dr. Catbagan said that they have already been busy training and preparing the barangay health workers to make them self-sufficient in the fight against Covid-19.
Aside from the construction of the 17 Barangay Isolation Units that could also serve as testing centers for Covid-19, the Mati IMT have also trained the BHWs on how to test subjects using the rapid antigen test kits.
The granular lockdown system is also in place which would greatly help in the suppression of transmission in the event of a surge in cases. Authorities also appeal to the public to remain observing the minimum public health standards by continuing to wear mask, avoiding mass gathering, and most importantly getting inoculated against the virus.
The City of Mati remains to be under Alert Level 2. (CIO MATI)
