LUCENA CITY –– A barangay in Real town in Quezon province has been placed under “lockdown” due to rising cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Mayor Diana Abigail Diestro-Aquino, in Executive Order No. 16 issued on Friday, placed Barangay Ungos under “localized enhanced community quarantine” (LECQ) until June 10, after the village recorded a spike in new COVID-19 cases.
“Quarantine passes issued to all villagers have been suspended. Unauthorized persons, who will be caught outside of their houses, will be penalized or face the corresponding charges,” Diestro-Aquino stressed.
On May 28, three more validated virus carriers were found in Ungos. The patients are relatives of two previously recorded COVID-19 patients in the villages.
The laboratory test results of the other relatives, who are at the municipal isolation facility, are pending.
The first two virus carriers were confined at the Quezon Medical Center in Lucena City.
Real has six recorded COVID-19 cases but one of them had recovered.
Meanwhile, a COVID-19 patient in Sariaya town has recovered after two laboratory tests showed negative results from the dreaded virus.
Mayor Marcelo Gayeta announced the recovery of Patient #4, a resident of Barangay Castañas, on his Facebook on Friday.
Sariaya has recorded four COVID-19 cases with three recoveries and one fatality.
In Lucena City, Mayor Roderick Alcala has assured residents that the surge of 10 local COVID-19 cases in the city was the result of the fast turnaround of laboratory test results, and should not be a cause of alarm. Lucena logged a total of 39 COVID-19 cases since the virus broke out in the country, but 29 have since recovered.
“In the coming days, we would be able to identify more but hopefully, there will be no more positive results,” Alcala said in a public message live-streamed on his Facebook.
Authorities attributed the quick dispatch of laboratory test results to the province’s first “biosafety level 2 plus” (BSL-2+) molecular diagnostic laboratory located in this city. The laboratory started operation last week.
As of Saturday, Quezon, now under general community quarantine, has 97 confirmed COVID-19 cases on record, but at least 69 of them have recovered, and eight others died.
LZB