Duterte imposes stricter lockdown in Davao
MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte placed his hometown of Davao City in Mindanao under a stricter lockdown following an alarming rise in the number of infections from the novel coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic, his spokesman confirmed on Friday.
Harry Roque said Duterte ordered the reversion of Davao City to the general community quarantine (GCQ) “effective immediately” until Nov.30 to prevent the rapid spread of the virus.
Roque described GCQ as the third strictest of the country’s four-level lockdown scheme in which only select businesses are allowed to operate at full capacity.
Earlier, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the president’s daughter, assured: “We will abide by the IATF recommendation,” referring to the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for the imposition of the GCQ on the city.
Meanwhile,roquesaidduterteorderedmelquiades Feliciano, the deputy chief implementer of the Task Force against COVID for the cities of Cebu and Bacolod in the Visayas, to head contact-tracing teams to be deployed in Davao City.
The government will also help address the problem of lack of nurses and medical equipment as well as drugs to be used used for COVID-19 patients, according to Roque.
Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, has blamed home quarantine for the alarming spike in the number of virus infections in Davao City.
On Nov. 17, members of an expert group called OCTA warned of a surge in COVID 19 cases in the cities of Davao and Baguio, called the “summer capital of the Philippines in the Northern Luzon highlands, which they described as “hotspots of serious concern.”
“We are concerned that if the surge is not contained, these LGU’S (local governmennt units) may experience high hospital burden in the coming weeks that may stress their health care systems and overwhelm their medical frontliners,” warned OCTA.
It added that Davao City recorded the highest number of average daily new cases during the first two weeks of November. Department of Health (DOH) data showed an average of 113 daily new cases on the first week and 104 on the second week.
At the same time, Davao City’s hospital occupancy rate in Davao City stood at 84 percent as of Nov. 15, which was well above the the critical threshold set by the DOH at 70 per cent.