DAVAO CITY — Mayor Sara Duterte said it was not yet time for this city to claim that it has controlled the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak because the number of coronavirus cases has continued to rise.
In an interview aired over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCR 87.5), Duterte took exception to a statement made by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who commended the Davao City government for its strict implementation of quarantine guidelines even after it shifted to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) last July 1.
The local chief executive said the city government could not say it has completely controlled the situation, nor claim that its response to COVID-19 was “best practice” since there was no benchmark to make the comparison.
“We do not know because there is no precedent, where we can say that this is best practice or not because this is our first time to encounter or experience COVID-19. The LGU would respond depending on the situation in its area of responsibility, and maybe what they said that Davao is model city for COVID-19 response, I think it’s very premature to say at this time because you can see the cases in Davao City are increasing,” she said.
Duterte added other LGUs may adopt some strategies of the city in addressing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We cannot say that we have completely controlled the situation here in Davao City, so it’s premature to say that we are a ‘model.’ As to the best practices, some of them could be applied by other LGUs but I don’t think they can apply everything in their respective areas because our situation here in Davao City will definitely be not the same in other places,” she said.
As of July 10, Department of Health-Davao recorded 29 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 718 cases with 34 deaths and 433 recoveries.
Of the total cases, 537 are in Davao City, 66 in Davao del Norte, 28 in Davao del Sur, 37 in Davao de Oro, 46 in Davao Oriental, and four in Davao Occidental.
In a press briefing streamed live over Facebook, Roque said, on Thursday, that the city has been strictly implementing quarantine guidelines to control and prevent the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) despite recording the highest confirmed cases in Mindanao.
Roque said the hometown of President Duterte continued to bar reopening tourism establishments even after shifting from general community quarantine to MGCQ last July 1 until July 15.
“The implementation of quarantine regulations is more intense in Davao City,” Roque said.
Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, who was chief of hospital of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), said there was good coordination among government and private health institutions, local government, and the Department of Health-Davao.
“We are united in our response to COVID-19. We implemented a referral system. The SPMC only accepts COVID-19 patients while private hospitals would take in our patients who are non-COVID. Its significance is that we can pool our resources in one referral center,” he added.
SPMC and Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City, Davao del Norte are the only referral hospitals for COVID-19 patients.
For several months, the SPMC has been the only government hospital in Mindanao that processed test results of suspected COVID-19 patients through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
At present, Davao Region has three COVID-19 testing facilities, with the addition of Davao One World Diagnostic Center Inc. in Davao City and Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. The government also operationalized testing centers in Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Koronadal, and Surigao.