A villager and a watchman inspect a backyard piggery at Barangay Upi in Gamu, Isabela as the province was placed under a state of calamity due to rising cases of African swine fever and growing threat of COVID-19 . (Photo by Villamor Visaya Jr.)
CITY OF ILAGAN –– The Isabela province was placed under a state of calamity on Friday amid the growing cases of African swine fever and the threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The provincial board unanimously approved a resolution for the declaration “in response to the dire and alarming situation at hand…”
At least 14 towns in the province were put on lockdown due to the ASF outbreak in several villages.
The board’s resolution cited the declaration of the World Health Organization that COVID-19 is already a pandemic.
It also referred to President Duterte’s declaration of a state of public health emergency./lzb