The CIty Hall of Davao in October 2020, in the time of COVID-19. MIndaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 06 September) – Mayor Sara Duterte is not inclined to put Davao City under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) despite the recommendation from the health cluster of the local government’s Task Force COVID-19 to revert to the most stringent quarantine status amid the surge of infections.
During her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Monday, Duterte said that she asked the health cluster to review their criteria for recommending ECQ, using the same parameters from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
She said that the local government would only discuss the recommendation if the result of the review would show that the city would need to be placed under total lockdown to slow the transmission of the infections.
Davao City is currently under the general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions.
Duterte said that after the review and the city would fall under the criteria of the IATF for ECQ, that would be the time that she would be amenable to reclassify the city from GCQ with heightened restrictions to ECQ.
She added that the health group of Task Force COVID-19 initially recommended measures than can be done even without putting the city under ECQ.
She did not elaborate, however.
According to the IATF-EID, Davao City, along with Davao del Norte, Davao de Oro and Davao Occidental will remain under GCQ with heightened restrictions while Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur will be under the normal GCQ until September 30.
As of Sunday, the Department of Health – Davao reported 1,123 new cases, bringing the total cases to 73,632 with 14,651 active, 56,704 recoveries and 2,277 deaths.
Out of the total cases, Davao City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mindanao, logged 39,983 cases with 6,712 active, 39,983 recoveries and 1,246 deaths. Davao de Oro tallied 4,977 cases, Davao del Norte with 13,026, Davao del Sur with 7,509, Davao Occidental with 2,284 and Davao Oriental with 5,853. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
