Local execs say lockdown needed to finish mass testing

Local government and health officials in Luzon and the Visayas want to keep their areas under quarantine to complete the mass testing for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“The most effective way to flatten the curve is to test, trace and treat. We are still in the early stages of testing and tracing, and we maintain our stand from Day One that until and unless our constituents are tested, we should not ease the restrictions,” Mayors Edgardo Labella of Cebu City, Jonas Cortes of Mandaue City and Junard Chan of Lapu-Lapu City said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The call was issued hours after Malacañang announced that Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu could shift from enhanced community quarantine to general community quarantine starting May 16 since they were among the “moderate risk” areas for COVID-19.

Cebu City, however, will be under modified lockdown from May 16 to May 31, joining Metro Manila and Laguna, which are considered “high-risk” areas.

Still not safe

The mayors said it was still not safe to proceed with the general quarantine since a greater part of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu had not been tested for COVID-19.

On May 6, the three cities started the strategic and calibrated testing of at least 10 percent of their population to get a clearer picture of the actual COVID-19 prevalence in their areas so they could come up with protocols to prevent a second wave of infections.

But the mayors said that while they understood the need to start up the economy, it should not be done at the expense of public health.

Data from the Department of Health showed that as of Tuesday, Cebu Island had 1,930 cases—1,695 in Cebu City, 111 in Mandaue, 48 in Lapu-Lapu and 54 elsewhere in the province.

Several mayors in Eastern Visayas also were not willing to lift border restrictions and open their areas.

In Dagupan City, health experts have recommended that the city be covered by a modified enhanced quarantine instead of a general quarantine after May 15.

Pangasinan province, including Dagupan, was classified as a “low-risk” area, along with other provinces and cities in the Ilocos region.

Dagupan Mayor Brian Lim said feedback from different sectors that “know better about the COVID-19 pandemic” was being reviewed.

As of Tuesday, the region had 560 people suspected to have caught the virus. But most of them had yet to get their laboratory test results.

In Pampanga province, Gov. Dennis Pineda said the modified lockdown would “give us enough time to prepare workers in the manufacturing, construction and other economic sectors” in the province.

He said this would also allow health officials to assess the results of mass testing and for the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to establish transport routes.

In Bulacan province, health officials said they were bracing for the rise of virus infections with the start of mass testing last week.

Bulacan has tapped the Philippine Red Cross to hasten the testing of 1,400 people suspected of having COVID-19, including health and nonmedical front-liners.

The provincial health office said 138 cases had been confirmed, with 45 recoveries and 27 deaths.

—REPORTS FROM ADOR VINCENT MAYOL, JOEY GABIETA, YOLANDA SOTELO, CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE, ARMAND GALANG AND TONETTE OREJAS