DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Duterte threatened a total lockdown in her city if local government units (LGUs) in neighboring towns and cities would not put up their own quarantine area for their own Patients Under Investigation (PUIs).
“I am asking mayors of other LGUs na kapitbahay namin (who are our neighbors). Gumawa na kayo ng PUI quarantine area ninyo (put up your own PUI quarantine area). Otherwise, I will close Davao City and you will have no access to hospitals and other essential services,” she said in an Instagram post at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
“Nagsasakripisyo na ang Davao City ng walang lockdown para sa inyo; gumawa naman kayo ng action (Davao City has already sacrificed a lot by not declaring a lockdown. Please, also do some action),” she said.
She also expressed concern that amid the recommendations by the country’s epidemiologists to contain the epidemic in the identified red zone in Metro Manila, passengers from Manila were still coming to Davao City through the Clark airport.
“Doctors want to contain everything in Metro Manila and yet, Manila passengers are allowed to fly out of Clark to Davao City,” she said. “Please rethink what you are doing.”
“The reason why they closed Metro Manila is to save the rest of the country and buy some LGUs some time [to confront the effects of the virus],” she said.
“LGUs now have to prepare a PUI quarantine area that is not your hospital. In Davao City we used an entire school as a PUI center and our health centers as triage to save our hospitals. Let us do our thing to make sure that sacrifice in Metro Manila saves lives in the entire country,” Duterte said in her next Instagram post.
Earlier, the mayor canceled all activities related to the celebration of the Araw ng Dabaw to prevent large gatherings which increased the possibility of person to person transmission of the COVID-19. Araw ng Dabaw activities used to run from March 1 to 16.
In another press statement, Duterte also limited the entry of non-residents into the city and restricted non-essential travel of city residents out of town. She said it was not a lockdown but a preventive measure to avoid possible spread of the virus.