BACOLOD City – Several medical frontliners here banded together and urged the city government to place the city under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) for at least two weeks.
Ten physicians who were active consultants in infectious diseases cited the sustained community transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases here and in Negros Occidental.
They wrote Vice Mayor El Cid- Familiaran, chair of the city’s Inter-Agency Task Force against COVID-19, a letter appealing for a time-out to recalibrate the government’s COVID-19 strategy.
“More healthcare workers are getting infected and our hospitals and quarantine facilities are getting overwhelmed. We do not want this to be out of control like what is happening in the National Capital Region and Cebu City,” read part of their letter dated Aug. 19.
Two weeks of MECQ, they said, would mean two weeks of saving lives.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia scheduled a virtual meeting with these physicians yesterday to hear their plea.
He, however, pointed out that it is the national government that gives quarantine classifications to the cities and provinces.
In the whole Western Visayas as of Aug. 21, the province Negros Occidental where Bacolod City is located has the most number of COVID-19 cases – 896 (277 local transmissions plus 619 locally stranded individuals, repatriated overseas Filipino and authorized persons outside of residence).
To recall, concerned physicians urged President Rodrigo Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases last month to place the Bacolod once more under ECQ for two weeks./PN
