DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Duterte told Dabawenyos that the general community quarantine (GCQ) status in Davao City may be extended until the end of the year.

This was the assessment made by Duterte after her father President Duterte approved the return of Davao City to GCQ from modified GCQ last Friday due to the rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases. The restriction will last until the end of November.

 “We can expect that before this month will end, the new community quarantine classification for December will be released, and much better if we prepare ourselves that we will still be under a GCQ,” she said.

Duterte said members of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team are expected to arrive in the city next week to assist the local government in managing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis.

Duterte said the team, led by Melquiades Feliciano, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 for the cities of Bacolod and Cebu, is expected to recommend granular lockdowns in areas where widespread transmission is observed.

“Next week, the CODE team will go here. They are the same team working in Bacolod and Cebu, most likely they have recommendations for lockdowns... the CODE will decide which areas to be placed on lockdown based on their assessment,” she said.

She said law enforcement agencies were expected to assist during the implementation of granular lockdowns in certain communities or clusters or, if necessary, deploy additional personnel.

The mayor said there were no barangays, puroks, or compounds under lockdown, except for 248 houses.

“The granular lockdown is similar to ECQ (enhanced community quarantine). In one area, whether it be a group of barangays, one barangay, or one zone, which has been identified for ECQ... Instead of the entire city, only certain areas with high cases, clustering of cases, high transmission will be on lockdown,” she said.

The entire city was placed under ECQ from April 4 to May 15, GCQ from May 16 until June 30, Modified GCQ last July 1 until November 20, and GCQ again from November 21 until the end of this month.

As of November 21, Davao City reported a total of 5,747 cases, Davao de Oro with 422, Davao del Norte with 931, Davao del Sur with 641, Davao Occidental with 113, and Davao Oriental with 407.

The entire region has 2,527 in total active cases, 5,427 recoveries, and 307 deaths.

Out of the 5,747 cases in Davao City, 2,004 are active, 3,490 are recoveries, and 253 are deaths.

Dr. Alethea De Guzman, of the Department of Health-Epidemiology Bureau, said that, at the meeting of Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team last Wednesday at the Camp Quintin Merecido of the Police Regional Office 11, most of the new cases here in the past two weeks were reported in Barangays Buhangin, Barangay 19-B, Talomo Poblacion, Agdao, and Bucana.