THE cities of Cagayan de Oro and Gingoog were placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from July 16 to 3, after the former registered five cases of the Delta variant, while the latter recorded one.
The six confirmed local cases of the Delta variant in Northern Mindanao can be managed as long as local government units aggressively implement the Prevent-Isolate-Detect-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) plus vaccination strategy.
This was the assessment made by Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 officials during a meeting with the local chief executives of Cagayan de Oro and Gingoog.
Department of Health (DOH) Secretary and IATF Chair Francisco Duque III noted the areas of concern that LGUs need to focus on in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 cases.
“Sa granular lockdown ninyo, (you need) aggressive contact tracing and (to) isolate (cases) immediately— that’s the way you cut the chain of transmission,” Duque said.
“Yung Gingoog City and CDO’s response have been quite effective. And I am confident that they will be able to contain the potential surge of COVID cases, not only due to the Delta variant, but also the Alpha and Beta variants in circulation,” Duque added.
This view was echoed by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary and NTF vice-chair Eduardo Año. He said that areas of concern due to rising COVID-19 cases will be prioritized in the national government’s vaccine deployment.
“Ang pinagkaiba with the Delta variant, alam nating mas mabilis ang transmission dito, so dapat magfo-focus tayo ng resources dito. The national government will make sure na mayroong CODE (Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic) teams na pupunta sa mga areas, and at the same time, sa rollout ng ating vaccines, kasama sa iko-consider na mas maraming vaccine ang i-eemploy dito,” Año said.
Cagayan de Oro City currently leads Northern Mindanao in terms of active COVID-19 cases, with 1,078 as of July 17.
Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., vaccine czar and NTF chief implementer, said the main objective is to lower by 5 percent the active cases, and then later on the new cases should already be in single digit.
The vaccine czar also cautioned against widespread lockdowns, saying it will do more harm than good.
“Ang ginagawa natin granular (lockdown). At most, city lang. As much as possible, i-minimize natin ‘yung economic risk,” he said.
Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno said they will strengthen their granular lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.
“We had been doing granular containment since last year, and wala namang problema. Under the rules kailangan lang i-concur ng RIATF (Regional Inter-Agency Task Force),” Moreno said.
Gingoog City Mayor Erick Cañosa, for his part, inquired if they can calibrate the implementation of ECQ in their locality with the current threat posed by the Delta variant.
“This is with regard the granular lockdown, we also implemented that sa Gingoog but I would just like to ask Secretary Galvez, if we can make some adjustments po, like for example sa Gingoog City po kasi, yung entire city po yung ginawa. Is it okay?” Cañosa said.
Galvez said the LGUs are allowed to “tweak” the policies as long it will not be detrimental to the local economy and still contain the virus.
Galvez also said that Region 10 will be among the priority areas for vaccine deployment in the months of July, August and September.
“Dapat focused and expanded ang ating vaccination. The focus (is) on the most vulnerable, at (doon) sa burden of death and burden of hospitalization,” Galvez said.
Earlier in the day, DOH Region 10 received a shipment of 26,660 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single dose COVID-19 vaccine at the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental.