ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Zamboanga Peninsula seems to have flattened the curve on the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health 9 (DOH) said Friday.
Joshua Brillantes, DOH-9 assistant regional director, said there has been no reports of new cases for three weeks now in Zamboanga Peninsula.
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Brillantes said the only case that sprung up was inside the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC), which he described as “a community that is already in a state of quarantine.”
“If we go to the local community and use it our basis when we downscale our [enhanced community quarantine] to [general community quarantine] at least we can see if we plot in a graph, I think we have already flattened because it’s more than 15 days already we have no new case,” Brillantes said.
Brillantes said the strict observance of community quarantine and social distancing contributed to the cut of the virus transmission.
“Because of this we thank the cooperation of everyone for adhering that is why we did not experience the surge of the illnesses,” Brillantes said.
The DOH-9 reported at least 66 COVID-19 confirmed cases: one in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte, five in Zamboanga del Sur, and 60 in Zamboanga City with 899 suspected cases.
According to Brillantes, from the total 60 confirmed cases in Zamboanga City at least 51 are from the ZCRC and nine are community-based patients.
He said out of the nine confirmed cases, two are residents Zamboanga City but are based in Manila who are medical frontliners while four others have recovered and discharged.
Brillantes said three positive cases in Zamboanga del Sur have also recovered and discharged.
He said since the pandemic at least three deaths were recorded from positive cases with 64 other COVID-related mortalities.
The DOH-9 also started training swabbers and contact tracers from the different barangay health emergency response teams in time for the community testing once the region downscales to GCQ.
Brillantes called on the local government units to prepare the "Ligtas" COVID-19 centers for the community quarantine which is a requirement in declaring the GCQ.
He reminded that there is a standing directive from the Department of the Interior and Local Government for the LGUs to establish their own Ligtas COVID-19 Centers or isolation areas.
“This will be a call for our LGUs. The quarantine that we are doing is not just to control our borders but to buy time to establish the isolation areas,” Brillantes said.
“That is why we trained swabbers and contact tracers. So that when we conduct the community testing we want for those confirmed cases can be placed in the isolation center. We have also to prepare our community and not just implement immediately the GCQ,” he said.