Abra extends, Davao mulls stricter quarantine

MANILA, Philippines — Abra will remain under the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until Sept. 17.

Gov. Ma. Jocelyn Bernos issued an executive order extending the ECQ after the province recorded the highest active COVID-19 cases on Sunday at 135 with 48 deaths.

Abra has been under ECQ since Sept. 1.

Bernos stressed the need to implement stricter quarantine measures after cases of the highly infectious Delta and other variants of concern were detected in the province.

She said travel protocols, triage units, access points, testing, quarantine and other ECQ guidelines would continue to be enforced.

Bernos said municipal mayors  should impose granular lockdowns and stricter quarantine guidelines if the need arises.

In Davao City,  Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the health group of the local COVID task force should ”look into the numbers and see if we fit the criteria” to shift to ECQ.

Carpio said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) should also review the situation on the ground amid a surge in COVID cases.

The IATF extended Davao’s general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions until Sept. 30.

The city logged 586 new cases on Sunday, bringing the active infections to 6,712.

Carpio said hospital beds allotted for COVID patients are at full capacity while the utilization rate of temporary treatment and monitoring facilities are at 65 percent.

No disconnection policy

Meanwhile, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it would extend its no disconnection policy in Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Lucena City, which remain under MECQ, and areas in Metro Manila to be placed under granular lockdown until the end of the month.

“Given the heightened restrictions still being implemented during the month of September, we continue to take into consideration the challenges our customers are facing amid these difficult times,” Meralco FVP and chief commercial officer Ferdinand Geluz said.

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