By Joseph B.A. Marzan
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) menace has caused the Iloilo City government to place 13 barangays under total lockdown since 6 pm yesterday, Sept. 22, 2020.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas issued Executive Order (EO) No. 148 on Sept. 22 to implement these lockdowns, which are expected to run until 5:59 p.m. on Sept. 27, in the following barangays:
– Bo. Obrero, Lapuz Sur, Mansaya, and Punong in Lapuz district;
– M.H. Del Pilar, San Isidro, and Simon Ledesma in Jaro district;
– Concepcion and Ortiz in City Proper district;
– So-oc in Arevalo district;
– Aguinaldo in La Paz district;
– Bolilao in Mandurriao district; and
– Calumpang in Molo district.
The above-mentioned barangays confirmed a total 96 COVID-19 cases in the past 6 days, with 57 of those cases confirmed only in the past 3 days.
Under the new EO, the barangays will have the following restrictions for the duration of the lockdowns:
– curfew from 8 pm to 4 am;
– strict stay-at-home and travel restriction orders;
– mandatory random testing for high and medium-risk contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients; via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and Rapid Antibody Tests; and
– continuing contact tracing measures.
Those who are found to be positive for COVID-19 via Rapid Antibody Test will be taken for quarantine at the city’s isolation Jubilee Hall in City Proper district.
Those who will test positive via RT-PCR, however, will be confined at the St. Therese Hospital, also in City Proper district.
Personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Army (PA), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), the city’s Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), and force multipliers and volunteers will be deployed to augment the maintenance of peace and order measures in the said barangays.
Access to the barangays will be limited to the following personnel:
– officials of the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF);
– Iloilo City officials;
– Iloilo City Health Office (CHO) personnel;
– Personnel distributing food and medicines;
– Members of the city’s COVID-19 Task Force;
– Department of Health (DOH) personnel;
– Red Cross personnel;
– Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Army (PA), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), the city’s Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), and force multipliers and volunteers maintaining peace and order;
– Health Care Workers;
– Those engaged in cargo and public transportation;
– Transport of essential goods; and
– Sanitation personnel of the Iloilo City Government, the CHO, BFP, including volunteers and private personnel maintaining sanitation.
The Iloilo City Government is also mandated by the EO to provide food and medical assistance to the residents of the barangays under total lockdown.
Treñas announced the decision to proceed directly to a total lockdown in a press conference on Tuesday, saying it was based on observations by the city’s COVID-19 Task Force.
The city government’s Emergency Operations Center confirmed 61 total active COVID-19 cases as of Sept. 21, 2020, 40 of which are of local transmission.
The mayor previously imposed surgical lockdowns on other barangays in cases of local COVID-19 transmission.
Surgical lockdowns refer to containment measures implemented in a particular area or zone in a barangay, in contrast to a total lockdown which would contain the whole barangay, for a given period.
“After several weeks of doing surgical lockdowns in our city, the [city’s] COVID-19 Team observed that we have to enforce stricter measures. Henceforth, after three [confirmed COVID-19] cases [in one barangay], we won’t be doing a surgical lockdown, but a total lockdown already in our barangays. Cases have been going up,” the mayor stated in a press conference.
The mayor also explained why the total lockdowns are now imposed for 5 days instead of the usual 3 days, saying that it was to give ample time for the city’s contact tracing teams.
In previous surgical and total lockdowns, the mayor imposed for only 3 days, with a few several instances wherein the lockdowns were extended due to a continuing increase of COVID-19 cases in these barangays.
“We made our localized lockdowns run for 5 days because our contact tracing team needs the time to contact trace and swab all of the close contacts. Not only contact tracing and swab [testing], we need the time so that the results will be out by 5 days. What we are looking at right now is that our laboratories release the results between 3 to 5 days,” the mayor said.
The mayor expressed his confidence that the city’s isolation facilities still have sufficient beds for those who will be taken there.
He also confirmed that 50 hospital beds at St. Therese Hospital will be allocated for recovering COVID-19 patients in the city to help ease the burden in other city hospitals.
