ILOILO CITY—Despite the surge in locally transmitted cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Western Visayas regional office of the Department of Health (DOH-6) is not amenable to placing Iloilo City under total lockdown.
DOH Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Jessie Glen Alonasbe said the city government was in the right direction of implementing surgical lockdowns in areas with clustered COVID-19 cases.
“This is selective lockdown. We do not have to close down the whole city because there are areas that don’t have cases,” Alonsabe said.
His assessment came after more than 400 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the city over a two-week period that were mostly locally transmitted cases, and traced to the fish port and call centers.
The DOH has been echoing the policy being pushed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on what it calls surgical lockdowns.
Instead of lockdowns, Alonsabe reminded the public to practice minimum health standard including wearing of face masks and following physical distancing measures.
“Regardless of type of lockdowns, if minimum health standards will not be observed, then it is useless,” Alonsabe warned.