ECQ eyed for Navotas

NAVOTAS, Philippines — Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco wants to put the city back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to rising COVID-19 cases and a delay in mass testing results.

In a letter dated May 18 addressed to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Tiangco said he was appealing the status of Navotas under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

The mayor said he would like Navotas to continue to be placed under ECQ because the city has yet to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 cases.

The Department of Interior and Local Government denied Tiangco’s earlier request for Navotas to continue under ECQ after May 15.

The mayor said that on May 13, when the city was put under extreme ECQ, there were 44 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 20 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 19 recoveries.

There were also 587 persons under monitoring (PUM), 346 persons under investigation (PUI) and 95 PUI deaths, Tiangco said.

As of May 18, three days into the MECQ, there were 65 confirmed cases, 23 confirmed deaths, 22 recoveries,  639 PUMs, 440 PUIs, and 107 PUI deaths.

“Suffice it to state, not only are the cases in Navotas accelerating, more importantly, this confirms that the city of Navotas is unable to flatten the curve,” Tiangco said.

He also lamented the “significant delay” in the results of the mass testing in the city in a partnership with the Department of Health and Philippine Red Cross.

Of the 1,759 tests done as of May 15, 994 are pending the release of results. Of the mass testing results, 92 tested positive and 673 negative.

3 positive in Marikina

In Marikina, three tricycle drivers subjected to rapid testing were found to have the virus, the city government said yesterday.

Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said the drivers have been quarantined and were being readied for confirmatory tests.

“They have been swabbed (last Monday) and if they test positive today, they will commence medical treatment,” Teodoro said in an interview aired over dzBB yesterday.

Marikina City began testing 1,084 drivers as the city transitions into relaxed quarantine restrictions. Teodoro said the city aims to test 6,000 others by Friday.  Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Neil Jayson Servallos