Doctors’ group wants stricter quarantine measure for Aklan

By Jennifer P. Rendon

A group of doctors in Aklan has recommended a higher community quarantine status for the province amid the current surge in COVID-19 cases.

In a letter dated July 27, 2021, and addressed to Governor Florencio Miraflores, the Aklan Medical Society (AMS) cited that the relentless surge in cases has reached an unprecedented number.

As of July 25, data from the Aklan Provincial Health Office showed that the province has 1,329 active cases.

Based on Department of Health-Center for Health Development-Western Visayas regional case bulletin on July 30, the region recorded 556 new cases.

Aklan accounted for 253 cases or 46 percent of the total cases in Western Visayas. It overtook other areas including Iloilo province (107) and Iloilo City (71). Both areas are on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) since July 16 until August 7.

The AMS cited that the province has an average of 147 new cases daily and an average of 2-3 deaths daily from July 18 to 24.

“Despite placing the province on general community quarantine with heightened restrictions, this has not deterred the daily increase of Covid-19 cases,” the group added.

AMS pointed out that the steady increase of cases has placed a heavy toll on medical frontliners.

“Soon, this will also exhaust our resources such as hospital and health facility beds, medicines, and mechanical ventilators,” the AMS said.

On top of that, the AMS pointed out that with current pace of vaccination rollout due to global scarcity of doses, the number of critically ill patients and deaths will continue to rise.

As such, “the AMS, as well as Philippine College of Physicians (PCP)-Capiz-Aklan chapter are recommending for a modified ECQ (MECQ) or ECQ classification to prevent the impending collapses of our health system.”

Further, “until our cases are manageable or at least our vaccine rollout is continuous, we cannot relax our guard since Covid-19 variants have already reached our province.”

The group also assured that it will continue to work closely with the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force, putting collaborative efforts, to address the adversity in a bid to prevent more lives ending up as pandemic casualties.

The letter was signed by all AMS officers headed by its president, Dr. Alistair Kashmir dela Cruz.