Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered the stricter implementation of security measures in hotels used as quarantine facilities for returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) after more cases of the B.1.1.7 or the new United Kingdom-variant of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) were reported in the country.
Belmonte suggested that police officers be deployed outside the said hotels to ensure that each person staying inside will complete his or her 14-day quarantine.
"Now that the DOH confirmed the presence of the new strain in several places of the country, the more we need to double our efforts in preventing the spread of the virus," she said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Quezon City Tourism Department action officer Tetta Tirona also said that they will intensify their inspection of hotels and other establishments to ensure that they are compliant with minimum health standards.
"We are leaving no stone unturned to guarantee that every hotel operating in the city is implementing the health and safety guidelines to the letter,” she said.
The Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) required the hotels converted into quarantine facilities to submit a list of returning OFWs staying with them for daily monitoring.
Data released by the Department of Health (DOH) showed that the country has 17 patients with the UK-variant of COVID-19 as of Saturday.
The first case that was reported was a male Quezon City resident who had a travel history from Dubai. His mother and fiancé also contracted the new variant of the disease.
All three have since tested negative for COVID-19.