MANILA, Philippines – Bataan Gov. Abet Garcia has asked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), which leads the government’s COVID-19 response, to reconsider proposals to ease quarantine measures in the province.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, IATF chair, Garcia endorsed several requests to keep Bataan under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) instead of shifting to a less restrictive general community quarantine (GCQ).
Bataan is one of the areas in Central Luzon that have an easing of quarantine regulations after being classified as an area with a moderate risk of having a further increase of COVID-19 cases.
However, the League of the Municipalities in the Philippines’ Bataan Chapter, led by Dinalupihan Mayor Maria Angela Garcia, has asked the provincial government and the national government to extend the ECQ until May 31 — as it will be in Metro Manila, Laguna, and Cebu City.
According to the local officials, the gains that Bataan has made in the fight against COVID-19 might be compromised if local transmissions of the disease will be recorded with a return to normalcy.
As of Wednesday, Bataan has 111 confirmed coronavirus-infected patients, of whom 42 have recovered and five have died. While the 111 cases might seem minuscule compared to the national figure, which has gone over 11,000 cases, Bataan has a backlog of 559 patients whose test results have yet to be released.
Last Tuesday, Duterte approved the IATF proposal to keep high-risk areas under ECQ, put moderate-risk areas such as Bataan under GCQ, and waive strict quarantine measures in low-risk areas.
However, the government’s health experts themselves warned that they have not yet controlled the coronavirus transmissions — despite the easing of quarantine regulations — reminding people to still observe measures placed to avoid mass infections.
As of Monday, the Department of Health has recorded 11,618 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 772 deaths and 2,251 recoveries.
Worldwide, over 4.264 million persons have been infected, 291,972 of whom have died while 1.493 million have recovered.
/atm