League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) National President and Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco Jr. confirmed on Monday, August 16, six coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) Delta variant cases in two barangays in Santa Cruz town.
With the COVID-19 Delta variant cases now in the province, Velasco, in an interview over ABS-CBN, said strict border control with the general community quarantine (GCQ) is now enforced in the province.
“Ginawa na po naming GCQ ang Marinduque. Dati po ay MGCQ (modified general community quarantine) at mahigpit na po ang pagpasok (in the province). At talaga pong kung, yung mga APORs (authorized persons outside residence) lang po ang talagang pwedeng pumasok (We placed Marinduque under GCQ. Previously it was under MGCQ and the entry is highly restricted. And really those allowed entry are really the APORs only,’’ Velasco said.
On the night of August 15, Santa Cruz Mayor Antonio Uy noted that they conducted an emergency meeting after receiving the report from the Philippine Genome Center and inspecting the affected barangays.
“We made sure that our contingencies were in place and foods, medicines, tents, and isolation units are prepared for the stricter quarantine that will be imposed. Also we checked the available manpower that can be tapped at any time,” he said in a Facebook post.
On August 14, the Marinduque provincial government issued Executive Order 28 imposing GCQ from August 16 to 31, 2021 in the province due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
He noted that non-APORs who really need to go out for medical reasons are only those allowed to leave their residence.
Velasco noted having given specific instructions to the barangay captains, barangay officials and Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERT) to conduct house-to-house inspections to determine the residents with COVID-19 symptoms and to have them tested and placed in quarantine facilities immediately.