Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco said Monday that household lockdown is a good plan, but it is difficult to implement.
“It’s a good plan but how do you implement it? You lockdown the house, you lockdown 100 houses, how do you make sure that people in those 100 houses do not go out?” Tiangco asked in an interview with ANC.
According to him, household lockdown is hard to implement considering that some cities, like Navotas, already lack barangay watchmen.
His remark came after Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo urged on Sunday, April 4, the Department of Health (DOH) to consider enforcing lockdowns on households that have at least one member who is positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“The only good thing here is meron kaming Q-Band kung hindi, imagine how will you monitor, kulang na yung tanod sino magbabantay kahit ilockdown mo 'yun (The only good thing here is we have Q-Bands. If not, imagine how you will monitor those people under lockdown. There are even no enough guards who will watch even if you lockdown a household),” he added.
The city implemented a quarantine band system that monitors the movement and health status of active coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient in the city and their close contacts as well as residents in areas under granular lockdown.
The city mayor said the local government prefers isolation for COVID patients, but they are forced to implement home quarantine instdzc due to surge of COVID-19 cases in the city that left isolation facilities fully occupied.
“Preferred namin kasi 'yung... i-isolate sila but we were forced by the situation kasi hindi na nga kayang tanggapin (We preferred to isolate them instead, but we were forced by the situation because we could no longer accept them in isolation facilities),” he said.
“Kasi 'yung sa Navotas you decide, if you want to stay in the house where there is a positive case kahit negative ka, you cannot go out for the time being that the person has not recovered ngayon kung gusto, kung may trabaho ka, APOR [authorized person outside residence) ka you have to find a place to stay in (In Navotas you decide, if you want to stay in the house where there is a positive case even if you are negative. But you cannot go out for the time being that the person has not recovered. Now if you want to go out, if you have a job or an APOR, you have to find a place to stay in,” he added.