TUGUEGARAO City will undergo a 10-day enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) starting today up to August 21 to contain a surge in COVID-19 infections in the city.
“We have to bite the bullet. This is the only way we know that we can temporarily stem the surge in our city,” said Mayor Jeff Soriano, adding the 10-day ECQ was approved last Tuesday by the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Soriano said Gov. Manuel Mamba had pushed for a 14-day ECQ but the mayor said he wanted a shorter ECQ because the city government and its people can no longer bear the hardship from a longer lockdown.
“Our arrangement with the Regional IATF was, if we will not be able to improve our situation in 10 days, there will be an automatic extension (of the ECQ) for another seven days,” said Soriano. “Hopefully, we will be able to bring down the cases.”
Soriano said he recommended ECQ after the city recorded over 500 COVID-19 cases from August 1 to 9. The number grew to more than 700 as of yesterday, 122 of them recorded on Tuesday.
He said the city also had 17 COVID-19 deaths since August 1 up to yesterday.
Soriano said all private and public hospitals in the city are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
At the Cagayan Valley Medical Center, Soriano said 26 COVID-19 patients have lined up in tents, waiting for their turn to be accommodated.
Soriano said this is the fifth time the city will be on ECQ since March last year. The latest ECQ in the city was in late March to April 13 this year.
From a high of 1,163 active cases last April, Soriano said they were able to bring down the number to about 200 in June.
