MANILA, Philippines — The province of Laguna and the cities of Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro will be placed on lockdown until the middle of August, Malacañang announced yesterday.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to place Laguna, Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) beginning Aug. 6 until Aug. 15, 2021,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro have been under the strictest quarantine classification since July 16.
There was also a proposal to place under lockdown the entire CALABARZON region, composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, but only Laguna will be classified as an ECQ area.
Roque said Cavite, Lucena City, Rizal and Iloilo will be under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 6 to 15.
The province of Iloilo used to be under ECQ.
Batangas and Quezon will be under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions from Aug. 6 to 15.
Meanwhile, Bataan will shift from MECQ to ECQ, Gov. Albert Garcia said yesterday.
Garcia said they are just waiting for the go-signal from the IATF on when the strictest quarantine classification, which was approved during a meeting of the provincial IATF and Bataan mayors on Tuesday, would be implemented.
The provincial health office said Bataan logged 84 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the total active cases to 2,017.
Eighteen were infected with the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Garcia said Mariveles, where the Freeport Area of Bataan is located, is considered the epicenter of Delta cases in the province.
The town has the most number of active cases at 1,171 followed by Balanga with 224 and Limay with 155.
Government hospitals in Bataan have occupancy rates ranging from 71.88 percent to 100 percent.
Several private hospitals have occupancy rates of 52 to 100 percent.
Enough beds, oxygen
In Negros Occidental, provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz said government-run hospitals have enough beds and medical oxygen, amid a surge in COVID cases in neighboring provinces.
“Our situation is far better compared to other provinces with high cases of COVID-19. We are hoping this will continue,” Diaz said.
From a peak of 2,400 active cases in the past few weeks, infections dropped to 1,109 on Wednesday, records provided by the provincial incident management team show.
The provincial government upgraded its oxygen plant at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City to address the shortage in other areas.
Diaz said the plant is producing 1,540 oxygen tanks a month. He said 1,200 tanks are being consumed by three government hospitals in the province.
In Abra, Barangay Poblacion and Sitio Baybayating in Barangay Collago in Lagayan town were placed under ECQ for two weeks starting yesterday.
Mayor Edmarc Crisologo said this means only one person from each household is allowed to go out to buy essential items.
In Nueva Vizcaya, the first case of the highly infectious Delta variant was reported yesterday in Solano town. – Ric Sapnu, Victor Martin, Gilbert Bayoran, Eva Visperas, Artemio Dumlao