MANILA-Tuguegarao City has been placed under 10-day enhanced community quarantine beginning Tuesday due to the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases, its mayor said.
The enhanced community quarantine may be extended by 4 days if cases will not decline, said Mayor Jefferson Soriano.
The 10-day period is based on the World Health Organization’s guidelines that virus patients are no longer infectious after 10 days, according to Soriano.
“There’s no variant here yet. People are just a little confident, that’s my analysis as the father of the place. It’s a cocktail of factors, unstoppable social gatherings,” he told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
(There is no COVID-19 variant here. The people just became complacent, that’s just my analysis as the city’s father. It’s a cocktail of factors, including social gatherings. “
The city’s healthcare capacity is full as active cases reached 568 as of Tuesday, Soriano said. Some 91 frontliners are infected, of which 51 are healthcare workers, he added.
Tuguegarao City also has a higher mortality rate than the national average at 20 percent, according to the mayor.
“Our healthcare utilization rate, our COVID hospitals are full especially our main COVID-19 hospital in the region, the Cagayan Valley Medical Center,” he said.
(Our healthcare utilization rate, our COVID hospitals are full, especially our main COVID-19 hospital-Cagayan Valley Medical Center.)
Under the ECQ, only essential travel is allowed and documents such as travel pass from the point of origin is needed, said Soriano.
A curfew from 9 pm to 5 am will also be enforced, he added.
The city in late January was also placed under ECQ due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.