Ilocos Sur town placed under MECQ

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Tagudin town in Ilocos Sur has reverted to stricter modified enhanced community quarantine or MECQ amid a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 cases.

Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Luis Singson issued an executive order placing the town under MECQ from Nov. 30 to Dec. 14.

Singson said Tagudin accounts for 12 of the 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province, a majority of them recorded in the past week alone.

Singson imposed curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to limit the movement of people.

Tagudin Mayor Roque Versosa Jr. mobilized so-called ”COVID busters” to disinfect their respective barangays every 3 p.m.

In Ilocos Norte, Laoag City, which reverted to MECQ on Nov. 27, recorded 202 confirmed COVID cases on Sunday and Monday.

The provincial health office said 89 of the new patients are inmates at the Ilocos Norte provincial jail.

Meanwhile, Tuguegarao City Mayor Jefferson Soriano said they may no longer seek to revert to MECQ.

Soriano said only six of the 2,000 people who underwent swab testing on Nov. 24 were found positive for the virus.

As this developed, a doctor, a medical technologist, a nurse and driver at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center contracted the virus.

In Isabela, an Army division camp in Gamu was placed under zonal lockdown after four soldiers were infected.

Gamu recorded 19 cases on Monday, the highest recorded in one day.