ILOILO City – Moving fast to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-9) in three City Proper barangays, Mayor Jerry Treñas ordered a three-day lockdown of a boardinghouse and two houses beginning Friday.
“I wish to remind everyone to strictly observe the protocols laid down in Alert Level 3. No mass gatherings are allowed and no gatherings of persons from different households,” he said.
The boardinghouse was in Barangay Tanza Baybay while the two houses were on Dela Rama Street, Barangay Zamora-Melliza and at Zone 8, Barangay Veterans Village.
Reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests on several people in these areas from Jan. 12 to Jan. 14 yielded “at least two and continuously increasing” number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, according to Treñas.
Tanza Baybay had six confirmed cases, Zamora-Melliza had seven while Veterans Village had three all in the last seven days.
As of Jan. 14, Iloilo City had 918 active COVID-19 cases, while its death toll from the disease stood at 627, data from the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 showed.
“Cases are at an all-time high. We are doing everything to ensure these will go down,” said the mayor, referring to the 189 new infections that the city recorded on Thursday, Jan. 13. It was the highest single day number of cases recorded here since the pandemic started in 2020.
The following day (yesterday, Friday, Jan. 14), the city recorded 183 more new infections, the highest in the region that day.
The granular lockdown of the boardinghouse and two houses started at 6 p.m. yesterday. A strict stay-at-home for the occupants was ordered until Jan. 17.
Treñas ordered a curfew in the neighborhood of the boardinghouse and the two houses – from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.
He also advised neighborhood residents to refrain from unnecessary travel until the COVID-19 testing and sanitation processes have been completed.
All transportation (private and public) and the movement of persons in the neighborhood shall be restricted for the duration of the granular lockdown except for those who need immediate hospital care and management.
The City Health Office has been tasked to conduct mandatory RT-PCR test on all high-risk and medium-risk contacts of the COVID-19 positive cases, and subject these contacts to 14 days of quarantine.
The city government will provide the food and address the medical needs of the locked down boardinghouse and two houses.
As for the 183 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Friday, 179 were local cases (local transmissions), three were returning locally stranded individuals and one was a returning overseas Filipino, according to DOH Region 6.
Iloilo City was placed on Alert Level 3 beginning Jan. 9 by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, which cited rising COVID-19 infections.
This alert level wills be observed until Jan. 31 unless this is extended./PN
