Mayor calls for easing of quarantine level in Iloilo City

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas on Tuesday called on the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to lower the city’s community quarantine (CQ) status for economic reasons, citing lower coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections.

Treñas revealed through social media that he sent a message to an unnamed member of the IATF-MEID asking to lower the city’s current General CQ with Heightened Restrictions (GCQ-HR) status.

He cited the decreasing number of COVID cases in the city in the recent weeks, as well as the economic effects of the pandemic and the high vaccination rate.

Data from the City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (CESU) as of Oct. 11, 2021 indicated that the city logged 971 new COVID cases in the last 14 days (Sept. 28 to Oct. 11).

From October 1 to 11, the city recorded 639 new cases with a daily average of 58. This is lower than the same period in September, which had 1,689 and an average of 154 cases per day.

As to vaccination, City Health Office (CHO) data as of Oct. 11 indicated that 279,334 persons, or 53.21 percent of the city’s target population (525,000), have been fully vaccinated.

Also, 332,668, or 63.37 percent, received at least their first dose of the vaccine.

Treñas also mentioned the city government’s 30-bed modular hospital in Brgy. Sooc, Arevalo, which is set to open, as well as another 44-bed modular hospital which will be in development soon.

These facilities will be co-managed by the city government, the Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) and The Medical City Iloilo.

“We need to already start the slow process of slowly recovering so that people will start having jobs and probably schools can start to reopen after our children are fully vaccinated. We have also fully vaccinated our teachers both in the public and private schools. I make this ardent appeal for a lower quarantine classification for Iloilo City,” the mayor said in his text message.

In a Facebook post, Treñas also said he will be requesting the IATF-MEID to allow starting the pilot COVID vaccination of minors by October 19.