ILOILO – To arrest the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and hasten the recovery of the province’s economy, the provincial government is implementing more measures.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. yesterday issued a 54-page order aligning the province’s campaign against COVID-19 with the national government’s National Action Plan Against COVID-19.
“The province shall enforce health protocols and community quarantine measures for an intensified prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration (PDITR) to prevent or manage COVID-19 surge, while keeping prevalence and transmission within the parameters of MGCQ (modified general community quarantine), and implement a social healing and economic recovery plan, moving towards a new normal,” read part of the executive order.
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.
“First of all, this is a consolidation of previous MGC Executive Order 183 together with all amendments pero may mga bag-o ‘ni sia nga features kay may added perspective,” Defensor clarified.
“This is a ‘surge prevention’ executive order while managing the numbers sang aton prevalence and transmission sang COVID-19. Dapat i-maintain within the parameters of MGC while we are implementing our socioeconomic healing and recovery plan for the province,” Defensor told the press.
The new features include prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration.
For prevention, the governor reiterated the importance of the ban on social or public gatherings and strict compliance with minimum health protocols.
Under the detection, Defensor ordered the following:
* Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) shall conduct intensified health monitoring, detection and isolation/quarantine of contacts, suspect, probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases at the barangays.
* All suspect cases shall be listed, traced, and assessed based on the same criteria to identify close contacts. They shall be subjected to RT-PCR test, and isolated immediately upon detection.
Under isolation:
* Reverse isolation shall be adopted as a frontline strategy in COVID-19 response. Reverse isolation shall be the isolation of persons more vulnerable to the severity of COVID-19 (Vulnerable Persons), such as those who are 60 years old and above, pregnant women, and those with immunodeficiency, comorbidities, or other health risks.
* The province shall implement reverse isolation measures, adopting applicable provisions of the Department of Health-Department of Interior and Local Government Joint Administrative Order No. 2020-0001. The following reverse isolation measures shall be observed:
a.) The LGUs, through the BHERTs shall identify vulnerable persons at the barangay level, maintain a record/database for purposes of reverse isolation
b.) Subject to the limitation on movement of persons sixty (60) years old and above, vulnerable persons are encouraged to stay at home, and to the extent possible, limit movement to the instances; and vulnerable persons are discouraged from attending public gatherings.
Under treatment:
* There shall be Local Isolation and General Treatment Areas for COVID-19 cases (LIGTAS COVID-19 Centers) in the province, municipalities, Passi City and barangays. LIGTAS COVID-19 Centers shall be community based facilities within a barangay, municipality, city or province, linked to a health care institution (HCI), where contacts, suspects, probable, and confirmed COVID-19 cases, whose home environment cannot support physical distancing, can be temporarily housed for quarantine or isolation.
For reintegration, the province shall implement a program for the Socio-economic Healing and Recovery of the Province of Iloilo towards Reintegration (SHARP Province towards Reintegration or Project SHARP), which aims to restore the damage caused by COVID-19, with refocused and adjusted priorities and programs, to bring about economic recovery and heal social life.
“It shall focus on restoring money being withdrawn from the local economy, promoting confidence and safety in people circulation, and protecting their psychosocial welfare. Project SHARP Iloilo shall focus on the areas of health, local economy and psychosocial welfare,” Defensor said.
As of May 12, Iloilo had 6,231 total coronavirus cases – 368 active, 5,683 recovered and 179 deaths./PN
