KALINGA – The Provincial and Regional Inter Agency Task Force (RIATF) has extended the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) status of Tabuk City to another week.
The decision was made after the City Health Office reported an alarming rise of cases as testing centers continue to be overwhelmed by swab samples that need to be tested.
Mayor Darwin Estrañero said the recommendation of another ECQ extension was approved during the meeting with City Inter-Agency Task Force (CIATF) where most of the members are Punong Barangays.
City health officials have reported that 42% or at least 18 of the city's 43 barangays have been placed under COVID-19 critical zones for having at least five clustered COVID-19 cases per three puroks in every barangay.
Tabuk went into a city-wide lockdown last January 24, a recommendation of the city health office to be able to trace all the close and sub contacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) positive patients.
The mayor said they see four reasons for the surge of Covid-19 cases in Tabuk.
They are backdoor entry using the Tinglayan road without document, conduct of religious gatherings where there are participants who come from other high-risk areas and eat together while they talk; the asymptomatic patients who do not know they are already infecting family members.
“We already traced them and their close contacts, they are now on quarantine and isolation,” Estrañero said.
The mayor assured that food supply, as well as agricultural materials, will be unhampered.
The extension of ECQ in Tabuk City will be from Feb. 9 to Feb. 15, 2021.
Meantime, RIATF Chairperson Dir. Araceli San Jose said there will be an imposition of Moderate Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in the municipalities of Tanudan, Tinglayan, Pinukpuk, and Lubuagan, and GCQ in Balbalan, Pasil, and Rizal starting 12:01 a.m of Feb.9 until 12 midnight of Feb.15, 2021.
The recommended imposition for every area was based on the January 4 - 29, 2021 Health Risk Level Matrix and Containment Zoning Strategy.
The province of Abra is under new normal; Benguet under low risk; Apayao, Baguio City, Ifugao, and Mountain Province under moderate risk.
The guidelines of the newly imposed community quarantine classification of the municipalities shall be provided by their LGUs.