Many of 118 new COVID-19 cases in Baguio traced to call centers

By: Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Southern Luzon, 3 Mar 2021

BAGUIO CITY—Employees of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, or call centers, have been isolated this week due to a possible coronavirus outbreak after workplace tests confirmed that many of the 118 infection cases recorded in Baguio on Wednesday (Mar. 3) came from these facilities.

Other patients on the list work for a high-end food establishment.

The infections raised the number of Baguio’s active cases to 345 out of the new city total of 5,387.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the country’s contact-tracing czar, said he expected the number of cases to rise as contact tracing efforts track down people who may have been exposed to the new carriers, according to the city information office.

The City Health Services Office did not identify the location of the stricken BPOs. Large call center operations are concentrated in Camp John Hay, the Baguio City Economic Zone and a BPO hub administered by a shopping mall in downtown Baguio.

Baguio is on general community quarantine (GCQ) which had been extended to March 31. But the city had eased border restrictions, exempting leisure travellers from GCQ restrictions.