BONTOC, Mountain Province – The provincial government disclosed that almost all the confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the different parts of the province are either locally stranded individuals (LSIs), returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) or individuals with travel history to high risk areas like Baguio City.
Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. stated that the number of confirmed COVID cases in the province is still manageable because of the active participation of the various municipal governments in the put up of their own quarantine and isolation facilities for their own patients.
He said the province and the municipalities remain strict in the implementation of community quarantine protocols, particularly the prescribed mandatory 14-day quarantine for individuals that travel to high risk areas, LSIs, and returning OFWs, to ensure there will be no outbreaks of the virus in the province.
Based on the records obtained from the Cordillera office of the Department of Health (DOH-CAR), Mountain Province remains to have the least number of confirmed COVID cases since the first week of June when it reported its first case and some 31 individuals already recovered, while 4 remain as active cases.
Lacwasan claimed that one patient is confined at the Luis Hora Regional Memorial Hospital in Abatan, Bauko while the three other cases are undergoing isolation in the various isolation facilities of the province established in the different municipalities.
According to him, each of the municipal governments have been allowed to independently implement their own health and safety protocols aligned with the community quarantine guidelines crafted by the inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
The governor pointed out that the province will continue to strictly enforce the prescribed community quarantine guidelines with certain changes to suit the overall situation within its area of jurisdiction to abate the possibility of a sudden surge in the number of COVID cases and that the same will remain in full force and effect until the overall situation in the country will stabilize.
Lacwasan underscored that the people of Mountain Province were able to survive the heavy impact of the prevailing community quarantine for nearly eight months now because of their resilience and the presence of available sources of livelihood that allowed them to maximize the use of their idle lands to produce the food needed by their families for them to survive the pandemic.
He urged LSIs, returning OFWs and individuals wanting to travel inside and outside their municipalities to comply with the existing guidelines being enforced by their local officials because what matters is the health and safety of the people so that there will be no untoward incidents that will transpire that could cause the surge in the number of cases which might compromise the local health care system in their places. By HENT
