ILOILO – The municipality of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo placed two of its barangays yesterday under three-day heightened community quarantine after the town recorded its first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Mayor Bryant Paul Biron announced the measures through Executive Order 34 to curb the further spread of the viral disease.
According to Biron, all residents of Ilaud Poblacion and Tabucan are allowed to go out during the heightened community quarantine.
Non-essential travel within the area will be banned and only frontliners will be allowed to go out provided that they undergo sanitation procedures.
The two villages will also be subject to extreme disinfection and the public market will be closed during the community quarantine.
Private establishments in the area are also closed. No public transportation will be allowed to ply the areas.
The local government unit said it will set up a holding area to ensure that there is strict observance of social distancing protocols.
The affected residents will be provided with food packages for the three-day disinfection.
The Department of Health-Center for Health Development in Western Visayas on Friday confirmed two more COVID-19-positive patients in Iloilo province.
The COVID-19-positive patient from Barotac Nuevo is a 59-year-old female with no travel history and no known exposure to a patient infected with the virus.
Sarah Ventanilla, nurse 2 of Barotac Nuevo Rural Health Unit, said on Saturday health workers in town are tracing where the patient could have possibly caught the infection.
“We have not yet identified. We are identifying persons who had a travel history to Manila or abroad that might have mingled with the victim,” she said.
The municipal health office had initially traced 21 close contacts of the patient, mostly her family members and house-helpers.
The 21 are considered as persons under monitoring and now on strict home quarantine.
“Tapos na ang contact tracing na-identify na kon sin-o ang closed contact and dira kami karon sa ila nagakuha information kon bala sin-o ang nakabisita ukon naka-mingle sang patient,” said Ventanilla on an interview with DYSI Super Radyo.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea.
These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell.
Most people (about 80 percent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment, according to WHO. Around one out of every six people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing./PN