Ilocos Sur village locked down; Negros town mayor infected

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines — A village in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur, which recorded seven active cases, has been placed under extreme enhanced community quarantine (EECQ).

Mayor Bryan Dexter Tadena issued an executive order placing Barangay Binongan under EECQ for two weeks starting on Friday.

“There is a need for the provincial and municipal governments to implement counter-measures to prohibit the entry and exit of people in the barangay,” Tadena said.

Barangay health emergency response teams were tasked to coordinate with the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to implement extreme border control measures and limit the movement of people.

Tadena gave assurance that the municipal government would provide assistance to affected families.

In Negros Occidental, Mayor Enrique Miravalles of Valladolid town tested positive for COVID-19, according to provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz.

Diaz said Miravalles would isolate at the Mambukal Mountain Resort in Barangay Minoyan in Murcia.

Negros Occidental board member Manuel Frederick Ko is also in isolation at the same resort after he tested positive for the virus again.

Provincial health officer Ernell Tumimbang admitted that many residents still refuse to be inoculated against COVID-19.

2 priests die of COVID-19

Meanwhile, two priests in Cotabato died of complications due to COVID-19 on Friday, the office of Cotabato bishop Lito Lampon announced yesterday.

Loreto Sanoy, assistant priest at Rosary Heights parish, and Rex Bacero of the Notre Dame of Salaman College in Sultan Kudarat, tested positive for the virus last week.

The colleagues of the two priests said they would help in contact tracing.