ILOILO – Since midnight of July 13, the municipality of Bingawan was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) after six staff of the town’s Rural Health Unit (RHU) were found infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“Ibalik ang police checkpoint kag pagpatuman sang quarantine pass,” according to Mayor Mark Palabrica, who issued Executive Order No. 24, Series of 2020 for this Sunday night.
Of the six new recorded cases, Palabrica confirmed that three were midwives, two were nurses and one was an ambulance driver.
They were part of the 91 additional infections that the Department of Health Region 6 confirmed on Sunday night and brought to 552 the total cases in Western Visayas.
The COVID-19-positive residents of Binggawan were the following:
* 59-year-old female (Patient No. 491)
* 32-year-old male (Patient No. 492)
* 31-year-old female (Patient No. 493)
* 34-year-old female (Patient No. 494)
* 29-year-old female (Patient No. 495)
* 33-year-old male (Patient No. 496)
These patients were all asymptomatic and were all taken to the town’s quarantine facility.
According to Palabrica, the ECQ status will remain for two weeks as local authorities rolled out contract tracing for close contacts of the six cases.
ECQ is a form of community quarantine implementing temporary measures imposing stringent limitations on movement and transportation of people, strict regulation of operating industries, provision of food and essential services, and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce community quarantine protocols.
The municipal government, Palabrica said, has issued quarantine passes for local residents, who need to go out for necessary transactions.
“Isa lang sa kada panimalay ang hatagan sang quarantine para pahanugutan nga maggwa kag magbakal sang pagkaon, bulong kag importante nga kinahanglanon,” Palabrica explained.
Under his directive, Palabrica also imposed travel restrictions in an effort to stem further transmission.
There are, however, a few exemptions. Restrictions on travel do not cover the following:
* health and emergency frontliners service personnel
* government officials and government frontline personnel
* duly-authorized humanitarian assistance actors
* persons travelling for medical or humanitarian reasons
* persons going to the airport for travel abroad
* other persons transported through the effort of the national government upon observance of the necessary quarantine protocols and with the concurrence of the receiving local government unit
* anyone crossing zones for work permitted in the zone of destination and going back home
Movement of all types of cargoes, on the other hand, shall be unhampered.
Workers in the logistics sector, such as cargo, trucking, courier delivery, and port operations shall likewise be allowed to transit across the municipality, provided that only a maximum of five persons may operate cargo and delivery vehicles by land, with or without load.
Palabrica clarified that residents working outside the province and city of Iloilo would be allowed to leave the town as long as they present their company identification card.
Meanwhile, Palabrica ordered the temporary closure of the municipal hall and the RHU starting Monday until July 15,
“Samtang nagapadayun ang contact tracing, aton siraduhon ang RHU kag ang munisipyo sa sulod sang tatlo ka adlaw agud ma-disinfect, wala anay sang physical transaction sa municipal hall sa nasambit nga mga adlaw,” Palabrica said.
Healsoappealed to his constituents: “Sa mga pinalangga ko nga mga pumoluyo sa Bingawan nagapangabay ako nga suportaran ta lang ang ginapatuman nga health protocol sa idalom sang ECQ kay para man sa aton tanan para indi maglapta ang COVID-19.”
Bingawan was the second town in Iloilo province to revert to ECQ; the first was Alimodian after health authorities recorded 13 COVID-19 cases there./PN
