BAGUIO CITY – Five provinces in the Cordillera were able to graduate from the implementation of the extended Luzonwide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) effective May 1, 2020 after the said areas were classified as low-risk places by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases while two populated centers remain under ECQ up to May 15, 2020.
Apayao, Mountain Province and Kalinga which did not register a single case of Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 were joined by Abra and Ifugao that were declared under general community quarantine (GCQ) while Baguio City and Benguet which accounted for bulk of the COVID cases in the region remained under ECQ pending the assessment of health authorities after the 15-day ECQ extension.
Based on the latest data obtained from the Cordillera office of the health department (DOH-CAR), there are some 43 confirmed COVID cases in the region where Baguio City was able to record the highest number of cases with 30 followed by Benguet with 9, Abra with 3 and Ifugao with a single case.
However, Mountain Province Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. pointed out that despite the downgrading of the province to GCQ, the province’s borders will remain closed to stranded students and workers eagerly wanting to go back to their respective municipalities until May 15, 2020.
He disclosed that based on the recent meeting of the members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Mountain Province chapter, it was agreed that stranded students, workers and other individuals, especially those coming from areas that had been declared as high risk because of high number of COVID cases will not be allowed to enter the province temporarily.
Lacwasan said that in case the province will open its borders for the stranded individuals, those who want to go back to their places will still have to undergo the prescribed 14-day home quarantine in identified quarantine facilities in their municipalities and barangays depending on the recommendation of the concerned health authorities.
The governor stipulated that the gradual operation of certain sectors that will be allowed pursuant to the guidelines of the national task force will be the ultimate direction of the province as immediately allowing the full-scale operation of various sectors will surely rui the gains of the ECQ, especially that the province was able to sustain its COVID-free status.
In Tabuk City, Kalinga, the local government is preparing the appropriate quarantine facilities for the expected influx of stranded individuals from other places, especially from identified high risk areas, so that once they will be given the go-signal to enter the city, they will be required to undergo home isolation or quarantine in the said facilities before they will be allowed to join their respective families.
Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero disclosed that for the meantime, no stranded individual will be allowed to enter the city until such time that all the proposed quarantine facilities shall have been properly equipped and provided with the required number of health workers to cater to their needs while under strict monitoring by the concerned health authorities.
By Dexter A. See
Illustration by Don Ray Ramos