TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The city government recently released the guidelines on the use of community quarantine passes in the city after the downgrading of the previous enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ) status of Kalinga.
Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero issued Executive Order No. 34, series of 2020 stating that farmers quarantine pass, vendors quarantine pass and establishments quarantine pass shall still be in effect while the home quarantine pass will still be in effect for 2 days in a week, provided that, quarantine passes ending in numbers 0, 1 and 6, 7 are allowed on Mondays and Thursdays, quarantine passes ending in 2, 3 and 8, 9 are allowed on Tuesdays and Fridays and quarantine passes numbers ending in 4,5 are allowed on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
He added that disinfection of business establishments and public places, not limited to roads, parks and places public in character, shall be carried out on Sundays.
Under Estrañero’s order, all persons must wear face masks at all times while the no-movement policy shall be strictly enforced on Sundays, except in emergency cases upon presentation of valid passes or an order or permission coming from the commander of the operations center, either verbal or in written form.
Earlier, Kalinga, including Tabuk City, was placed under GCQ by the national inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases effective May 1, 2020 that allows the operation of certain essential establishments and the transition to the new normal where strict observance to physical distancing and mandatory wearing of face masks will be required.
It will be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order No. 112, series of 2020, imposing an ECQ in places identified as high risk areas in the country because of the increase in confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, while placing other areas that included Kalinga and Tabuk city, under GCQ effective May 1, 2020 to May 15, 2020.
The city chief executive said that the downgrading of the status of Kalinga and Tabuk City does not mean that the city will be back to a normal situation as the rules and regulations that have to be strictly observed to prevent the city’s gains from the ECQ will still be enforced prevent the potential entry into the city of possible COVID carriers and transmit the same to innocent city residents.
“We have to continue maintaining our vigilance because we do not want any untoward incident that will ruin the gains we achieved during the ECQ. We consulted the concerned sectors and reached a consensus on how are we going to undergo the needed transition to the new normal,” Mayor Estrañero stressed.
Tabuk City is one of the places in the Cordillera that remains COVID-free since the implementation of the ECQ and even after the downgrading of its status to GCQ following the implementation of stringent rules and regulations crafted to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the city.
By HENT