Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has dismissed news circulating online that the city will be placed under lockdown.
“Please be informed that there’s a post circulating in the city that I am planning a lockdown. That was a post last March before the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Iloilo City,” Treñas said in a statement on Tuesday.
The mayor was reacting to an old Facebook post that resurfaced in social media claiming that the city will again be placed under lockdown or ECQ.
According to Treñas, most of the positive cases in Iloilo City are locally stranded individuals and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
“Now that protocols are in place, we can attend to the positive patients most of whom are asymptomatic. Most of the positive in Iloilo City come from the ranks of the LSIs and the OFWs,” he said in a statement.
Iloilo City including other areas in Western Visayas are under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) from June 15 to June 30, 2020 pursuant to Resolution No. 46-A of the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID)
IATF-EID said that President Rodrigo Duterte will announce the quarantine status of certain areas in the country on June 30.
The national pandemic task force has said that classifications were based on the epidemic risk-level, economic, social, and security considerations and the appeals and commitment of the local government units (LGUs).
In previous interviews, Treñas said that the quarantine classification of the city is no longer important as the city government focuses more on preventing the transmission of Covid-19.
“Para sa akon, classification is not even important to me. Whether we will be under General Community Quarantine (GCQ), MGCQ, or ECQ importante ang lives of people nga naapektuhan para sa akon importante ang health sang Ilonggos. Importante nga we control the transmission,” he said in a press conference on Monday.
According to the mayor, he was informed that the lowest classification of quarantine status in the regions will be MGCQ for the entire year.
He appealed for cooperation among Ilonggos.
“Gapangayo gid ko bulig sa inyo tanan. Ang sitwasyon is very fluid,” he said.
As of Tuesday, Covid-19 cases in Iloilo City totaled to 29 with 10 active cases, 18 recoveries and one death.
Infected repatriates in Iloilo City totaled to 41.
