BAUKO, Mountain Province – The municipal government reported that there is only one remaining person under investigation (PUI) awaiting confirmatory test result for the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) global pandemic that is affecting almost all countries in the world.
However, Mayor Abraham B. Akilit disclosed that while there is only a single PUI in the municipality, the number of persons under monitoring (PUMs) continue to significantly increase because people continue to move from once place to another, especially to areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases like Baguio City, La Trinidad and other parts of Northern Luzon and Metro Manila.
From the 216 previous PUIs in the municipality based on the data from the municipal health office and other health facilities in the locality, the town’s PUMs increased to 458 while PUMs who were able to recover were 477.
Akilit claimed that from the 10 PUIs that were documented by the local government at the start of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, the remaining PUI is still confined in a local health facility while the (PUIs) were given a clean bill of health after completing their prescribed 14-day home quarantine or isolation in health facilities in the municipality.
The local chief executive expressed concern over the continuous mobility of people coming in and out of the municipality which might have a serious negative impact to the efforts of the concerned government agencies and the local government when there will be a sudden confirmed case that will be traced from those that had been moving in and out of the barangays.
He said that the local government also tapped the barangay officials to strictly implement the enhanced community quarantine policies in their areas of jurisdiction to contribute in efforts to reduce the movements of people in and out of their places.
According to him, there are still some residents in the different barangays who seem not to have internalized the real essence of the strict implementation of the quarantine guidelines as they continue to involve politics in their continuous defiance for them to stay at home and observe social distancing which is the only proven weapon against the spread of the deadly virus.
Mayor Akilit lauded the commitment and support by shown by the barangay officials of the town’s 22 barangays on the sustained implementation of the quarantine policies, especially their refusal to buckle down on the threats of their constituents not to vote for them in the upcoming elections considering that what is at stake is the health and safety of the people from being exposed in acquiring the virus and spreading the same in their communities.
He stated that one of the major problems being countered by the law enforcers in the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the municipality is that most of its barangays are located along national roads that serve as passage ways for people and motor vehicles going in and out of the province that is why the local government has a difficult time monitoring them.
The municipal mayor asserted that what is being protected in the implementation of the guidelines of the enhanced community quarantine is the safety of the people that is why the residents should understand why the government is compelling them to stay at home for them not to be exposed to the elements and contract the virus that will compromise their health and affect their productivity.
By Hent
