LEGAZPI CITY— Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion is requesting the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) to suspend the return of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to the city where the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases jumped from zero to five in three days.
“The limited facilities and scarce health care resources in Naga have been heavily strained,” Legacion said in a letter addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte, Department of Health (DOH) SecretaryFrancisco Duque III and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año.
Legacion said that the Bicol Medical Center’s (BMC) bed capacity was full as of Saturday evening.
“Though we care for our returning Nagueños, the city needed time to cope with the emerging cases of COVID-19,” he said, adding that the city needs to set-up border control and additional health care resources.
The city also requested that it be granted the authority to “impose mandatory quarantine and further medical procedures on overseas Nagueño workers.”
On Thursday, a mother and daughter, aged 59 and 30, tested positive COVID-19 after arriving from Naic, Cavite.
They have since been in contact with 14 individuals in Barangay Concepcion Pequeña.
While one of their contacts already tested negative, two others have tested positive on Saturday, while the city waits for the result of the swab tests of the 11 other contacts.
The area where the patients reside have been placed on lockdown while the city isolated the patients at the BMC.
Naga City has so far recorded 12 COVID-19 cases – five active cases, six patients who have recovered and one who died.