MANILA – Iloilo City remains under general community quarantine (GCQ) for 31 more days.
Bacolod City and the rest of Western Visayas, on the other hand, are under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) for the entire month of December.
In a public address last night, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF-EID) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for the new quarantine classifications
Over the weekend, Mayor Evelio Leonardia of Bacolod City appealed to the IATF-EID to shift the highly-urbanized city under the lenient MGCQ after being placed under GCQ since October.
In his appeal to Health secretary Francisco Duque III, Leonardia pointed out that “Bacolod City has met all the criteria for de-escalation.”
He also touted the declining number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases for the past two weeks.
“As of Nov. 24, there are 258 active COVID-19 cases out of 5,294 accumulated cases. The total number of recoveries has reached 4,875 or 92.08 percent, which correlates to good management and treatment of COVID-19 cases,” Leonardia said.
“We have successfully implemented COVID-19 surveillance testing in our three major public markets and slaughterhouse, Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, workers in the food industry, and city government employees serving as frontliners,” he added.
Iloilo City, however, will remain under GCQ for the third straight month, while Iloilo province, Negros Occidental, Guimaras, Aklan, Antique, and Capiz stays under MGCQ since June.
President Duterte warned areas under GCQ, including Iloilo City, to strictly follow the quarantine protocols as to not suffer the same fate of Europe and United States, which were now suffering third wave of coronavirus disease 2019./PN
