BONTOC, Mountain Province – Four barangays here are now considered critical zones and were placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) until January 31 due to the detection of the United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Mayor Franklyn Odsey announced Monday, January 25.
Odsey, himself under isolation for having contracted COVID-19, identified the critical zones as Barangays Samoki, Bontoc Ili, Caluttit, and Poblacion.
He said the strict quarantine was imposed to prevent people from leaving their homes, while allowing Department of Health (DOH) team to do full contact tracing.
Odsey said there has been a dramatic increase in the number of positive cases in Bontoc since late December, prompting him to first impose a lockdown in Barangay Samoki, and now, in the three other barangays.
And with the detection of the UK variant in Bontoc, he said ECQ would likely be expanded to all of its 16 barangays, and depending on the results of contact tracing these may even be enforced in the whole Mountain Province.
The first batch of contact tracers from the DOH arrived Sunday in Bontoc to augment the local tracing teams looking for carriers of the UK coronavirus (B.1.1.7) variant.
Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, assistant regional director of DOH in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) who also accompanied the group, told the Philippine News Agency that there are now 15 contact tracers from DOH Cordillera regional office and 10 from Ilocos Region.
She said 20 other contact tracers from DOH Regions 2 and 3 will also be deployed.
Odsey said that of the 12 patients found to have been infected with the UK variant, six were earlier admitted at the Bontoc General Hospital and have since been discharged and listed as recovered.
However, they were still on quarantine.
Three other cases are still at the Luis Hora Regional Hospital, and the last three cases, including the two children, are on isolation.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the 12 cases comprise seven males and five females with three of them below 18 years old and three above 60, all from Bontoc. They have been found with the UK variant of COVID-19.
The youngest among those affected is a five-year-old child.
Of the 12 cases, 11 are from Barangay Samoki and one is from Barangay Bontoc IlI.
The DOH is now conducting an investigation to determine possible community transmission of the UK variant.
“As president of the Mountain Province League of Mayors, I coordinated with my fellow mayors to intensify and have a collaborative COVID-19 response in all towns, including stricter border control. And, to stem the spread of the virus, we have undertaken the following measures as part of our Detect, Isolate, and Treat strategy,” Odsey said. (With a report from PNA)