MANILA, Philippines — Laguna will be on lockdown until Aug. 20 to address the surge in COVID-19 cases in the province.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) decided to place Laguna under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) again upon the recommendation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and provincial government.
Laguna, which was initially placed under ECQ from Aug. 6 to 15, was downgraded to modified ECQ on Friday.
”This latest ECQ reclassification was made to maximize its effects, slow down the surge of COVID-19 cases, further stop the spread of variants and improve health system capacity to protect more lives in the area,” Roque said.
He said the change in quarantine classification was in line with an executive order giving the IATF the authority to impose, lift or extend community quarantine classifications in provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities.
Aside from Laguna, Metro Manila will remain under ECQ until Aug. 20. Bataan is under ECQ until Aug. 22.
Stricter quarantine in Baguio
Meanwhile, Baguio City may revert to stricter quarantine status once the number of infections surges due to the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.
“Eventually, we will have to adopt a stricter quarantine status. Our economy will suffer but it is imperative that we enforce stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus,” Mayor Benjamin Magalong was quoted in a post on the Facebook page of the city government’s public information office.
Baguio is currently under general community quarantine.
“We will continue our strict entry rules for as long as necessary because judging from the experience of other countries that had bouts with the Delta variant, it will take more than two months to have a downward trend in cases,” Magalong said.
He urged the public and private sectors to prepare their contingency plans to address risk factors in the transmission of the Delta variant.
Establishments were urged to intensify the implementation of public health standards and other precautionary measures.
Delta cases
In Calabarzon, more than 100 Delta cases were recorded, according to Department of Health regional director Eduardo Janairo.
As of Friday, Janairo said Cavite recorded 41 Delta cases; Laguna, 35; Batangas, 14; Rizal, 14, and Quezon, seven. He said all those infected have recovered.
The DOH-Calabarzon initiated Project DELTA or Detect Early Transmission through Antigen Testing in areas where the highly infectious variant was detected.
In Pangasinan, the DOH placed Dagupan City under Alert Level 4 due to an increase in active cases.
The city logged 30 new cases on Friday, bringing the number of active infections to 229. – Artemio Dumlao, Ed Amoroso, Michelle Zoleta, Eva Visperas