DAVAO CITY – The Davao City Government has not discussed raising the city’s quarantine status to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) despite a recommendation from UP OCTA Research due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.
The city has been under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) since June 5 but COVID-19 cases remains high as active cases had not dropped below 1,000 since the start of the month.
In her Special Hour program on the city’s Disaster Radio FM, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio explained that the city government only follows the recommendation from the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
She also belied rumors circulating online that the city government will implement ECQ next month.
“We should remember (that the) OCTA Research is not a government research center. Ang ginasunod nato sa discussions sa community quarantine kanang dira sa IATF. Kung unsa ilang ihatag o i-recommend na community quarantine status sa atong syudad, ginasunod nato dira sa IATF,” the mayor said.
(We only follow the community quarantine set by the IATF. What they give or recommend regarding community quarantine status for the city, we follow the IATF) ” the mayor said.
Dr. Butch Ong of the UP OCTA Research gave this recommendation saying the ECQ had arrested the spike of cases this year in the National Capital Region bubble which is now experiencing a down trend of the surge.
The ECQ entails temporary closures of all establishments except for essential services, and stricter measures of persons to stay at home. The public have raised strong reactions on reverting back to ECQ with its adverse effects on their livelihood.
When asked by reporters, Duterte sees no urgent need to place the city in ECQ, and added that her opinion does not matter.
“It doesn’t matter what my personal opinion o personal assessment is on this matter, because we rely on the experts in the IATF and of course sa DOH on their assessments of the situation based on the numbers that they see, not just the daily new cases, not just the active cases but also positivity rate, hospital bed use, critical case capacity. So they look at many things and that is what they include in their assessment,” said Duterte-Carpio.
The total active cases in Davao City has reached 4,669 as of June 20. Overall, Davao City recorded 21,574 cases with 16,074 recoveries and 831 deaths
Mayor Duterte-Carpio cited three reasons for the surge in COVID-19 cases in the city.
The new variant is said to be more transmissible. Half of the cases also come from the workplace, and there had been cases where people who had been infected had spread the virus to family members.
The mayor said measures are being made by the city such as establishing a tele-medicine for COVID-19 patients and rolling out vaccination for residents.
