Former gov’t advisor urges urgent ECQ for Pasay City

A former adviser to the government has called for Pasay City to be urgently placed under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) following the spike in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and the detection of the South African variant among its residents.

“Pasay City should be on total ECQ at the moment pending the resolution of surges and control of South African variants. This is urgent,” Dr. Tony Leachon, former special adviser to the National Task Force against COVID-19 said in a tweet on Thursday, March 4.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday, MArch 4, said that one of the six cases of the South African variant of COVID-19 being verified is from Pasay as well, raising its number to four.

The DOH said on Tuesday that of the six South African variant cases, three are local cases, two are returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs), and one case is still being verified as to location.

In a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, March 2, Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano said that the two active cases have already recovered. One of them is a seafarer living in a transient home. She did not, however, specify which barangay.

Meanwhile, OCTA Research chief Guido David of the University of the Philippines said that the cities of Pasay and Makati have registered the highest rate of increase in cases in Metro Manila.

Dr. Althea De Guzman of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, in a press briefing on Wednesday, said that 91 percent of barangays in Pasay are now affected.

“The mutations, increased transmissibility, is now seen in Pasay City which is experiencing a surge in cases. So its two-week growth rate is now at 386 percent, and there is a 24.7 per [100,000 population] average daily attack rate,” De Guzman said in Filipino.

As of 7 p.m. of March 3, 2021, the city logged 543 active cases, with 76 new cases.