By Joseph B.A. Marzan
The Iloilo City Government on Friday confirmed that it will request the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to extend further the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) status of the city to June 30, 2021, as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases continue to surge.
The Iloilo City Health Office (ICHO) confirmed on Friday 171 new COVID-19 cases in the city as of Thursday. This is the city’s record peak in new cases since the pandemic began.
Based on ICHO data, the city logged 1,210 new cases from June 1 to 10 alone, with an average of 121 new cases per day.
As of June 10, the city has recorded 4,265 new COVID-19 cases, with 2,332 active cases, 1,842 recoveries, and 91 deaths.
The city government in its official Facebook page said that the metropolis had logged more than 100 cases daily since May 26.
In another social media post, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said the extension was based on a recommendation of the city’s COVID Team, which is composed of city officials, doctors, businessmen, representatives from non-government organizations, and members of the academe.
“Based on the recommendation of the COVID Team, we will request that the city remains under MECQ because of rising cases. We already requested additional vaccines to ramp up vaccination process of the residents,” Treñas said.
The mayor also reiterated that the city’s MECQ regime will help curb spread of the virus as well as keep hospital admissions at a lower rate.
The city government had already hired 23 nurses, 44 nursing aides, and 22 institutional workers to be deployed to hospitals across the city, and hotels that have been annexed by private hospitals for asymptomatic, mild, and moderate COVID-19 cases.
Treñas also said that more than 250 patients are on the waiting lists of city hospitals.
“The MECQ which limits movements seeks to slow down the spread of COVID-19. Hospitals have reached their capacities and several patients are already on waiting list. Quarantine facilities are also getting full,” he said.
COVID Team spokesperson Jeck Conlu told Aksyon Radyo said that the city’s measures against COVID-19 are being coordinated daily.
“[The number of cases] is number one basis, and our COVID Team with its advisory council meet on a daily basis. They are not the only ones involved, there are also others [from the city] also involved,” Conlu said.
He said that they may expect a response from the IATF-MEID within the weekend.
VACCINATION
Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infection Disease (IATF-EID) favorably endorsed the inclusion of the Iloilo province in priority area list of the National Vaccination Program.
Secretary Carlito Galvez, IAFT chief implementer and vaccine czar, said the endorsement was forwarded to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, chair of the National Vaccination Operations Center.
Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. told Galvez that the Province of Iloilo and Iloilo City “are contiguous with one another and are of the same economic importance.”
Iloilo City is in the priority list of the National Vaccination Program while the province is not.
“We cannot segregate Iloilo City from Iloilo Province as we are of the same economic importance and we have the same number of cases which are increasing at an alarming level considering that we are closely contiguous with one another,” Defensor wrote Galvez last month.
Defensor also told Galvez that the Province of Iloilo is ready to accept an allocation of Pfizer vaccines as it can comply with its storage and handling requirements.
The University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) has agreed to allow the province to use its storage facility which can store Pfizer vaccines at very low temperature.
