Delta variant triggers border control in Antique

Despite its general community quarantine (GCQ) status, the province of Antique implemented border controls and imposed additional measures following the detection of Delta variant cases in the province.

Border controls will be established in the towns of Anini-y, Hamtic, Pandan, and Libertad which share boundaries with the provinces of Iloilo and Aklan to limit the movement of Antiqueños, according to the Antique Inter Agency Task Force for Covid-19.

During their online meeting on Monday, the Antique IATF agreed to establish border controls which will be manned by police personnel.

According to Margie Gadian, secretariat of the task force, the police will be deployed to the borders where they will check public and private vehicles.

The province of Antique has established border controls to prevent the movement of people coming from Iloilo and Aklan effective immediately until the end of this month.

“The police are checking at the borders whether passengers of the public and private transportations have essential travel. Passengers are also checked whether they are observing the minimum health protocols,” she said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The Antique Provincial Health Office has also emphasized the need for the barangay officials and barangay tanods in the province to conduct daily monitoring of the compliance of the residents on the minimum health protocols.

Aside from these, the Antique Provincial Health Office has also recommended the intensified prevent, detect, isolate, treat, and reintegrate (PDITR) strategy to prevent the spread of Delta variant in the province.

Other recommendations of the Provincial Health Office include enhancing genomic biosurveillance; enhancing monitoring, response interventions, referral and management of identified suspect, probable, and confirmed cases, and mange surge by ensuring enough Covid-19 wards and isolation facilities, supplies of Covid medicines and medical supplies, and enough healthcare workers.

The Department of Health (DOH) has recently confirmed the detection of Delta variant in the province of Antique.

The health department revealed that two senior citizens from Pandan, Antique were positive for Delta variant.

DOH-6 has already ordered for the massive contact tracing of the possible close contacts of the couple in Antique. (ERS)