DOH nixes total lockdown over Iloilo City

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) nixed the idea of placing Iloilo City under total lockdown amid the steady rise in confirmed local cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in several area of the city.

In a press briefing, the DOH-WV CHD’s Regional Epidemiologist Dr. Jessie Glen Alonasbe said that localized lockdowns being implemented by local government units (LGU) are “in the right direction”.

“The final decision is with the LGU, but then again, the new system is not of a total lockdown but selective. I think we are in the right direction in our LGUs doing a selective lockdown, so we need not to close down the whole city because there are areas that don’t have cases, so I think we should just follow the selective quarantine,” Dr. Alonsabe said.

Dr. Alonsabe maintained that consistent implementation of minimum health standards is more important than imposing a lockdown.

“I think the most important thing right now, even Secretary [Carlito] Galvez is saying, it should be more of the strict implementation of our minimum health standards, because regardless of whatever lockdown, from ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) to MGCQ (modified general community quarantine), as long as minimum health standards will not be observed, nothing will happen. So I think that it should be a very consistent implementation of our minimum health standards,” he added.

The ECQ is the strictest form of quarantine which restricts the population to their homes except for essential activities.

The MGCQ is more permissive as it allows movement of people and more business operations.

Alonsabe added that people should consider themselves as a source of COVID-19 even when they feel well.

“Right now, our appeal is to the people. As we have always said, you should always consider yourself to be the one who will spread [COVID-19], not that you’re wearing a mask because you would contract the virus. You should always consider these days, and the health experts will always advocate for that, that we don’t know who can spread and who can be infected. If you consider yourself to be the one who may spread the virus, you will always take care of the people around you,” he said.

Several barangays in Iloilo City have been placed under lockdown in the past week, due to a rise in the number of local cases of COVID-19.

Some of these local cases were traced back to a call center in Mandurriao district and the Iloilo City Fishing Port Complex in City Proper.

DOH data indicated that as of August 13, 2020, Iloilo City has 485 local cases, with 385 active cases, 90 recoveries, and 10 deaths.

The same data also indicated 111 cases among repatriates residing in Iloilo City who are either Locally Stranded Individuals (LSI), Returning Overseas Filipinos (ROF), or Authorized Persons Outside of Residence (APOR).

 

ILOILO TO REMAIN UNDER MGCQ,

Meanwhile, Iloilo province will remain under the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) after Aug 15, 2020, but with a few changes to the current form, Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. confirmed on Friday.

In a phone interview, Defensor told Daily Guardian that the he received formal advice that the province will retain its MGCQ status.

Iloilo has been under the “more permissive” MGCQ since June 1 after the governor issued Executive Order (EO) No. 128.

The governor added that while he was given the opportunity to appeal, he will not do so, but instead met with mayors to seek recommendations on some adjustments.

“We will remain under MGCQ. I was given formal advice that we were recommended to remain under the MGCQ. They gave us opportunity to appeal, but I won’t pursue the appeal. That’s why I asked to meet with the mayors, to ask them on their experience and to identify the problem areas they’ve encountered wherein we can make adjustments to the new MGCQ executive order,” Defensor said.

He said the mayors did not raise serious issues except for some identified concern like possible crowding in public places.

Public gatherings in MGCQ areas are allowed under the Omnibus Guidelines issued by the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, however the venue can only be filled up to 50 percent of its actual capacity.

“I called for a meeting with them where they can raise issues, but there was no issue that was serious enough that were raised, so we talked about the other things which we can tweak, within the parameters of the Omnibus Guidelines. We can’t avoid, even with our EO, that there would be many people in places like church, or in birthday parties, where people gather,” the governor said.

Defensor said that he is considering the mandatory use of face shields in churches, as well as prohibiting alcoholic drinks during gatherings.

“We discussed if whether we can mandate the use of face shields when entering the church, and those things, among others, can be inserted into our finalized EO. Another example is public gatherings, which are allowed under the Omnibus Guidelines, but we can put some details which we can restrict, like consumption of alcoholic drinks, to lessen the disturbances and risks,” he said.

 

‘REVERSE’ ISOLATION, CONTACT TRACING

Other changes to be included in the EO are reverse isolation and reverse contact tracing.

According to the governor, reverse isolation means Persons Vulnerable to Severities (PVS) will be isolated inside their homes and will be treated as if they do have COVID-19.

“In reverse isolation, we will ‘reverse’ what we call the ‘Persons Vulnerable to the Severity’ or ‘PVS’, which will include pregnant women, the elderly, those with immunodeficiencies and comorbidities, among others. We will isolate them inside their households and treat them as if they were also positive to COVID-19. They should have separate rooms, separate restrooms, separate utensils, and would not have to eat with everyone. Face masks inside the house will also be highly encouraged. If we isolate our vulnerable persons, we can lessen the severe cases, because that is the biggest problem we have with COVID-19,” he said.

In reverse contact tracing, residents will register their destinations, whether in Iloilo City or other parts of the province or the region, through Travel Declaration Cards issued by their barangay, before leaving.

“For example, they’ll be going to an event or work in Iloilo City, you won’t have easier access to information of their whereabouts. But when you already have information at the basic level, you can reverse and start there. What we will do is to issue Travel Declaration Cards to those going to Iloilo City. When you get out of your barangay, you fill it up, and input where you would be going and what date and time so they can have data. When something happens, you can easily go back to the data and check whoever went to the city easily,” he said.

The governor added that if the person has other destinations, they can easily enter it in the cards upon return to their barangays.

“For example, if they work in the city, and they decide to go somewhere, like the grocery, they can fill up the Travel Declaration Cards when they return to their barangay. They can report that when they get home,” he said.