ILOILO City – With five confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Barangay Sto. Niño Sur in Arevalo district was placed on a 72-hour lockdown beginning 12:01 a.m. yesterday “unless a longer period is required to conduct mandatory random testing,” according to Mayor Jerry Treñas.
Within 72 hours or three days, the results of the tests on the close contacts of the five COVID-19 cases would have been released already, and these would be the bases for the city government’s next steps, said the mayor.
The Barangay Sto. Niño Sur cases – now all at the city government’s quarantine facility – were the following:
* 48-year-old male (region’s Patient No. 66)
* 55-year-old female (Patient No. 73)
* 43- year-old female (Patient No. 78)
* 57-year-old female (Patient No. 79)
* 48-year-old female (Patient No. 80)
Patient No. 66, the barangay’s – and Arevalo’s – first COVID-19 patient, worked as driver of the Iloilo City Emergency Responders.
The four other cases were confirmed just this May 5. Three of them were barangay health workers while the other one was the bookkeeper of the barangay council.
All the five Sto. Niño Sur cases were among the so far 1,507 city government frontliners subjected to COVID-19 testing.
According to Treñas, only a little over 500 test results have been released so far, so the public should not be surprised if the number of confirmed cases would soon increase.
He issued Executive Order (EO) No. 070 yesterday ordering an “extreme enhanced community quarantine” (EECQ) in Barangay Sto. Niño Sur.
Part of the EO read: “Whereas, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) Resolution No. 11, Series of 2020 provides that a barangay-wide quarantine may be imposed where there are at least two COVID-19 positive cases belonging to different households in the same village.”
During the three-day lockdown, the following must be observed within the barangay:
* residents must stay at home
* offices and businesses are closed
* quarantine passes are suspended
* transportation (private and public) is suspended
These restrictions, however, do not apply to persons who need immediate hospital care and management and those persons allowed by the executive order.
Barangay Sto. Niño Sur has 2,015 households.
For the duration of the EECQ, the city government “shall provide the food and medical needs of the residents…Barangay officials shall secure the list of necessary medicines of the residents (and) submit (this) to the City Health Office immediately.”
There would also be mandatory COVID testing on all high-risk and medium-risk contacts of the COVID-19 positive cases to be conducted by the City Health Office.
People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales.
These droplets also land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth.
Treñas tasked the barangay officials of Sto. Niño Sur to enforce his EO with the help of the Iloilo City Police Office, Philippine Army, Bureau of Fire Protection, Public Safety and Traffic Management Office (PSTMO), and force multipliers.
He also identified the following as the only authorized persons to enter and leave Barangay Sto. Niño Sur:
* officials of the IATF
* city government officials
* city health personnel
* personnel distributing food and medicines to the barangay residents
* Department of Health (DOH) personnel
* Philippine Red Cross personnel
* police, soldiers, PSTMO, force multipliers and volunteers maintaining peace and order
* healthcare workers, sanitation personnel of city government
* Bureau of Fire Protection personnel/PN
