ILOILO – Placing Iloilo City under a stricter community quarantine status won’t have that much effect in this province, according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas recently sought placing the city under a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ). He even issued an executive order (EO) detailing such but later clarified it still needed the approval of the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF).
“Basically, ang daku man lang nga deperensya (are) may prohibition ang social gatherings kag buhinan ang operational capacity sang establishments (in the city). Amo man lang ‘na sia. Waay sang maapektohan nga travel sang probinsya kag pagsulod sa syudad,” Defensor said.
The city is currently under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
There’s no strict home quarantine component under MECQ, the governor pointed out, so the movement of people, especially employees, to and from the province won’t be hampered, said Defensor.
As to the province, Defensor said he already issued an EO “for intensified prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration to prevent the surge of COVID-19, while managing MGCQ levels of prevalence and transmission, and to implement a socioeconomic recovery plan towards a new normal.”
“Naplastar naman ang health protocols and quarantine measures para ma-prevent ang pag-surge sang cases. Ara na da ang tanan nga himuon sang aton mga LGUs,” he added.
Based on the EO, the following key measures for COVID-19 prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration for surge prevention or management, shall be implemented:
1. COVID-19 vaccination of the targeted eligible population, under the Provincial COVID-19 Vaccination Deployment and Immunization Plan 2021-22 (COVAC PLAN 21-22);
2. Strict observance of the 3M-Strategy – Magmaskara, Magdistansya kag Manghinaw;
3. Strict observance of minimum public health standards in the movement of persons, transportation, establishments and other aspects of public life;
4. Maintenance of strict health protocols and quarantine measures for inbound travel to the Province;
5. Strict regulation of social/public events and gatherings;
6. Intensified and timely barangay monitoring, detection and isolation/quarantine of COVID-19 contacts, suspect, probable and confirmed case;
7. Fast and efficient contact tracing, and the creation of Provincial Contact Tracing Team to augment the capacity of the Local Contact Tracing Teams;
8. Strategic and extensive COVID-19 testing and creation of the Provincial Testing Team to augment the capacity of the City/Municipal Health Offices/Rural Health Units;
9. Adoption of Reverse Isolation as a frontline strategy to protect vulnerable persons, and strengthening of the LIGTAS COVID-19 Centers of the province, city/municipalities and barangays; and
10. Implementation of the Socio-economic Healing and Recovery of the Province of Iloilo towards Reintegration (Project SHARP) and Project Prime as frontline strategies for social healing and economic recovery towards reintegration.
Defensor also reiterated the prohibition on mass gatherings like fiestas, birthdays, funeral wakes, weddings, and baptisms as these could be COVID-19 “super-spreaders.”
As of May 17, Iloilo had 6,629 total confirmed coronavirus cases – 590 active, 5,861 recovered and 178 deaths.
The top five towns with the highest COVID-19 cases were Passi City (749), Oton (526), Pavia (454), Miag-ao (261), and Santa Barbara (254)./PN
