Isolate COVID patients instead of barangay-wide lockdowns

CEBU, Philippines — To avoid lockdowns in the province’s barangays, only first-level contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients will be isolated as a preventive measure against the transmission of the disease.

Level one contacts are individuals who interacted with positive cases with one meter or less distance for 10 minutes or more in the 14 days prior to the patient’s isolation.

Sugbo News, the official news outlet of the Capitol PIO, reported that this protocol from the Department of Health (DOH)-7 will be adopted by Cebu’s local government units.

A memorandum circular will be issued by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to mayors laying down the safety protocols.

This was decided upon the report of Mayor Paz Rozgoni of Moalboal where a barangay captain requested for a lockdown after one positive case had been reported in the area.

To this, Garcia said lockdowns drain resources and that there is no need for them since the province is under general community quarantine (GCQ).

“Let us not overreact kay di na man ta ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) GCQ man ta unya atong makita nga ang lockdowns did more harm than good,” she was quoted to have said in the news report.

She said that the province also needs to focus its resources on priority projects like infrastructure. Thus, budget from the province’s coffers will not be realigned to sustain barangay lockdowns.

“Let’s start being realistic about this. Kaning atong kahadlok, wa na nabutang sa lugar. Unya ra ba ang epekto ana ang kwarta ana, di na mabutang sa lugar,” she said.

Garcia stressed that various infrastructure projects have been put on hold in the months that the province has been battling the pandemic.

“Duna tay responsibilidad nga molambo ang lungsod, naa pay imprastruktura na dapat gastoan,” she added.

Garcia also appealed to DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas to focus on active cases of COVID-19. KQD (FREEMAN)