The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 has encouraged local officials of Iligan City in Northern Mindanao (Region 10) to recalibrate its pandemic response to be able to recover from its current community quarantine status.
NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. led Thursday the visit of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) team in Iligan City, the lone area under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ), the second strictest quarantine status, from September 1 to 30.
“Dapat ang lahat ng LGUs magtulung-tulungan tayo dahil ang Iligan City ay center spot. Dapat may 700 to 1,000 mega care facilities kaya kailangang magdagdag ng quarantine facilities at care facilities sa bawat barangay (All the local government units should help one another because Iligan City is a center spot. We need to have 700 to 1,000 mega care facilities so we need ro add more quarantine and care facilities in each barangay),” he said.
"At 'yong mga naka-home quarantine, kailangan na pong tanggalin sa home quarantine (Those who are in home quarantine, they should be taken),” he added.
As of September 4, Iligan City's Emergency Operation Center Health Cluster has recorded 393 cases with 79 active cases, 198 recoveries and 16 deaths.
It logged 16 new cases on September 4, of which, 13 were from local transmission while three were from locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
Iligan Mayor Celso Regencia said he is determined to contain the spread of the virus and scale up the city's health care system.
“The unprecedented events within the last couple of weeks and the rapid increase of the number of positive cases in my city have caused us and many administrations to seriously re-examine and re-engineer our local strategies in containing the spread of the virus," he said.
To support Iligan City's pandemic response, Galvez turned over to Regencia 2,000 test kits, 4,000 KN95 masks, 2,000 N88 or surgical masks, and 2,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) sets.
He also pledged to provide high-flow nasal cannulas, a non-invasive respirator for severe and ceitical cases, to Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City, Iligan City, and Lanao del Norte.