A task force to check on the safety of water delivery businesses has been created in Baguio City following the diarrhea outbreak in the city.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong directed the creation of a "Safe Drinking Water Task Force" on Friday, 19 January, a day after declaring the diarrhea outbreak over in the city. The task force's mandate is to implement immediate measures to address the source of contamination which is the unsafe water coming from deep wells and bulk water delivery companies.

"We are now officially out of the woods and now shifting to the endemic phase where diarrhea cases are back to normal rate," Magalong said during the Ugnayan Panlungsod press briefing recently.

"As such, we will now focus on the ways forward which include the adoption of stringent measures to ensure that the water delivery sector will become highly compliant with health standards," he added.

During the post-outbreak meeting on Friday, immediate measures were identified including the regular conduct of random water sampling of all delivery companies as well as the inspection of their facilities, such as storage, delivery trucks and hoses.

The Department of Health earlier said that over 3,000 individuals were affected by the acute gastroenteritis outbreak in Baguio City.

Based on the results of the epidemiological investigations conducted by the Baguio City Health Services Office and the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, the probable cause of the widespread diarrhea cases in the city from 26 December 2023 to 8 January 2024 was norovirus, but without ruling out bacterial causes.

The probable source of "chains of transmission" identified were contaminated water from private deep wells and bulk water delivery companies.

Water delivery companies with positive findings had already been ordered to cease operations and undertake intensive clean-up and disinfection as well as retesting before re-operating.