DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 09 July) — The city has remained strict in implementing restrictions to prevent more transmissions of COVID-19 even after the shift from general community quarantine to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), Presidential spokesperson Harry S. Roque said Thursday.
In a press briefing streamed live over Facebook, Roque cited that the hometown of President Rodrigo R. Duterte prohibited the reopening of tourism establishments.
“The implementation of quarantine regulations is more intense in Davao City,” Roque said.
As of July 8, Department of Health (DOH)-Davao reported 648 COVID-19 cases in the region, with 33 deaths and 406 recoveries.
Although tourism sites remain closed, the city government of Davao said hotels and similar establishments are allowed to open at 50-percent capacity after shifting to MGCQ.
Of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases, 484 were in Davao City, 62 in Davao del Norte, 27 in Davao del Sur, 36 in Davao de Oro, 35 in Davao Oriental and four in Davao Occidental.
Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, who served as chief of hospital of Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) before his appointment to his present post, said there is good coordination among government and private health institutions, local government and the DOH-Davao.
“We are united in our response to COVID-19.
We implemented a referral system. The SPMC only accepts COVID-19 patients while private hospitals would take in our patients who are non-COVID. Its significance is that we can pool our resources in one referral center,” he added.
SPMC and another government hospital, the Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City, Davao del Norte are the only referral hospitals for COVID-19 patients in the region.
For several months, the SPMC has been the only government hospital in Mindanao that processed test results of suspected COVID-19 patients through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test.
At present, Davao Region has three COVID-19 testing facilities with the addition of Davao One World Diagnostic Center Inc.
in Davao City.
The government also operationalized testing centers in the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Koronadal and Surigao. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
