MANILA – Bacolod City reverts to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) today until the end of the month.
President Rodrigo Duterte last night approved a stricter lockdown for Bacolod due to rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The recommendation made by the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. was presented to the President during a televised meeting.
Based on the Sept. 7 count of the Department of Health Region 6, there were a total of 1,151 active cases in the metro and 27 deaths.
On Monday alone, Bacolod recorded a total of 58 new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Bacolod City was under general community quarantine prior to its shift to MECQ.
Health secretary Francisco Duque III said the shift was recommended to IATF-EID by Environment secretary Roy Cimatu.
Cimatu, along with retired military officer Mel Feliciano, were recently tasked by President Duterte to help Bacolod City manage COVID-19 infections that were overwhelming hospitals.
“We strongly endorse the recommendation of (Cimatu and Feliciano) to escalate the community quarantine (in Bacolod City) to MECQ,” said Duque, who noted that Bacolod City now has more cases that Iligan City, which was earlier placed under MECQ.
“In Bacolod City, ‘yung four days po, nagkaroon sila ng total of 462 confirmed COVID-19 cases, nag–a-average sila ng 135 COVID-19 cases per day,” added the Health secretary.
Last week, Bacolod City’s Mayor Evelio Leonardia sent an “emergency and urgent appeal” to President Duterte to deploy an augmentation team of 150 nurses, 20 doctors and 30 medical technologists as an “emergency stop-gap measure.”
“The situation has worsened because many of the medical staff in hospitals tested positive for the virus and had to go on quarantine [or] isolation and they have not yet reported back to work, while several others have resigned or have gone absent without [official] leave (AWOL). Most of these personnel are nurses,” Leonardia said in his letter to Duterte. “An augmentation team can alternate with the staff that are still on duty at these hospitals or fill up the gap for those who are still on quarantine,” he added./PN
