Tuguegarao to shift to ECQ

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Tuguegarao City in Cagayan will be placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for 10 days.

The Cagayan Valley Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 granted the request of the city government to shift to the strictest community quarantine status starting tomorrow until Aug. 21.

Mayor Jefferson Soriano cited the average daily attack rate of COVID-19 in the city at 31. 8 percent, the highest in the province and the region.

Tuguegarao logged 73 new cases on Monday, bringing the total active infections to 635.

Soriano said all forms of public transportation and church services would be prohibited.

Curfew hours are from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Meanwhile, Vigan reverted to modified ECQ for two weeks starting on Sunday.

Vigan Mayor Juan Carlo Medina said the shift to MECQ was due to the almost daily double-digit cases in the city since the previous week.

“A scaling up of community quarantine classification is imperative at this point to control this surge and if only to ensure that our health care system, though overwhelmed, is functioning and fully operational,” Medina said.

Vigan recorded 37 new cases yesterday.

As of Aug. 8, the city logged 151 active cases.

”We are being informed daily on the presence of COVID-19 Alpha, Beta and Delta variants in several areas in the country. Unless and until we manage and control this health emergency, more transmissible and more dangerous variants will evolve,” Medina said in a post on Facebook.