<?php

$first = "%$first%";
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT id FROM dbCountries WHERE name LIKE ? OR alias LIKE ?");
foreach ($first as $id => $x)
{
    $stmt->execute([$x,$x]);
}
foreach ($citiesId as $desk){
while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_LAZY)) {
foreach ($row as $s=>$a){
echo "$a\n";
}
} 
}