ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Duterte has approved a more relax quarantine restriction for this southern city – modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) for the entire month of January.
Iloilo City together with Isabela was earlier included in the list of places under general community quarantine (GCQ).
Mayor Jerry Treñas appealed the initial recommendation of the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to keep the metro under GCQ.
He sent wrote National Task Force (NTF) Against Coronavirus Ddisease 2019 (COVID-19) chairperson and Defense secretary Delfin Lorenza, NTF vice chairman and Interior secretary Eduardo Año, NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., IATF co-chairman and Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles, and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
In his appeal, Treñas cited the city’s declining COVID-19 cases.
“Even for the month of December, diutay na ang kaso [sang COVID-19]. Kalkulado ta na ang infection,” the mayor said.
On the first day of 2021, the city logged only one additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and another one on Jan. 2 as of 12 noon, data from the City Health Office showed.
To date, the metro had a total of 4,667 COVID-19 infections – 4,397 of which recovered, leaving 120 active cases being monitored.
“It’s not fair if we remain under GCQ considering that we have lower cases compared to some of the provinces,” Treñas pointed out.
He said local authorities are strictly imposing safety health protocols to stem the transmission of COVID-19.
He likewise warned against complacency.
“Maghalong kita. As long as wala pa sang vaccine, pwede pa magsaka [ang COVID-19 cases],” Treñas reiterated.
The City Legal Office, he said, is preparing an executive order for the city’s new quarantine status. He may release the order by Monday.
On the other hand, Treñas, chairman of the Vaccine Procurement Committee of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), revealed they are consistently holding meetings in connection to the procurement of vaccines from foreign companies./PN