MECQ extended in another La Union town

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines — The modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status in Bauang town in La Union has been extended until the end of this month.

Gov. Emmanuel Ortega III approved the extension as sought by Mayor Menchie de Guzman to contain the spread of COVID-19 even as the town recorded a drop in the number of cases after it was placed under MECQ on April 12.

De Guzman sought stricter quarantine measures after the number of active cases in the town surged from 96 on April 1 to 181 on April 12.

Meanwhile, Ortega said Bangar would revert to general community quarantine (GCQ) from April 27 to May 10.

The town recorded 36 active cases on Friday compared to 115 on April 12.

The stricter quarantine status was extended in Luna until the end of the month.

Naguilian, Aringay, Tubao, Agoo and San Fernando, which were also placed under MECQ two weeks ago were downgraded to GCQ.

New variants

Meanwhile, Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Manotoc ordered another testing of the contacts of six COVID-19 patients in the province found infected with the more infectious variants.

Manotoc said the Philippine Gnome Center (PGC) detected the United Kingdom and South African variants in three cases in Laoag City and one each in Solsona, Paoay and San Nicolas.

He said five of the patients have recovered while one died.

In Zamboanga, city health officer Dulce Amor Miravite said the record 534 cases reported in the past week could be due to the new strain of the virus. “We are waiting for result of the genomic sequencing,“ she said.

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the UK variant of the virus is circulating in the city, citing  the recent increase in cases.

“We cannot capture the actual cases because of the time needed for the PGC to process the specimens... but it appears that we are now dealing with the new variants at the rate our infection is increasing, ” Magalong said. – Roel Pareño, Artemio Dumlao