2 Isabela, Cagayan LGUs seek MECQ for 2 weeks

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines — Citing an increase in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 cases, the mayor of Ilagan City in Isabela wants to place the city under modified enhanced community quarantine or MECQ from Oct. 6 to 16.

Mayor Jose Marie Diaz wrote Isabela Gov. Rodolfo Albano yesterday, seeking the intercession of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or IATF for the MECQ declaration.

Diaz stressed the need to control the movement of people to prevent the spread of the virus, which had affected 42 of their 91 barangays.

Forty-three cases were recorded in the past three days.

On Monday, the Governor Faustino Dy Sr. Memorial Hospital and a private hospital in the city were closed to new patients after recording one confirmed case each.

Diaz placed two barangays on lockdown until tomorrow after 15 residents tested positive for COVID-19.

In Cagayan, the local IATF in Enrile also asked the Cagayan Valley regional IATF to place the town under MECQ from Oct. 6 to 16 to allow authorities to enforce stricter quarantine measures.

Four were added to the list of infected municipal government employees yesterday, bringing the total to eight.

Mayor Miguel Decena suspended work as he and his staff underwent swab testing. The other municipal government employees were asked to go on home quarantine.

An employee, who was exposed to his father, a barangay councilman, and brother, who works as a nurse at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center, is the first confirmed case in the local government unit.

LSI travel passes suspended

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan suspended the issuance of travel authorities for locally stranded individuals (LSIs) bound for Negros Occidental until Oct. 9.

Cascolan said the moratorium is in compliance with Joint Resolution 43 of the Western Visayas IATF which approved the suspension of the return of stranded residents from Oct. 3 to 9.

Negros Occidental has 3,270 COVID-19 cases with 71 deaths as of Monday. At least 553 or 16.91 percent are LSIs.

Cascolan directed the Directorate for Operations, Aviation Security Group, Maritime Group and regional police offices to implement the suspension order.

In Cotabato City, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) shut down its office for disinfection after one of its security guards was infected.

The two-story GSIS building along Gov. Gutierrez Avenue is closed until Friday.

More Pangasinan workers infected

In Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, more workers of a company, where 79 tested positive for the virus over the weekend, were found infected.

Mayor Joel delos Santos said 34 more workers of the total 536 who underwent swab testing yielded positive results.

Ninety-one of the cases are residents of Sta. Barbara.

The premises of the company are among the areas in Sta. Barbara that were placed under ECQ following an unprecedented single-day spike in the number of confirmed cases. – Gilbert Bayoran, John Unson, Eva Visperas