Pampanga: Stricter barangay protocols vs COVID-19 set

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda instructed 505 barangay (village) chairmen to bar the entry of no-residents in their neighborhoods, “except in life-and-death situations,” as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections rose to 332 and the province’s two quarantine facilities reached full capacity.

In a meeting with town mayors last Friday, Pineda also required Pampanga residents who work or travel to Metro Manila to log in their movements in a village registry.

The registry enables epidemiologists to track down the number of times they return home to their families so that health workers can monitor their condition.

“Pampanga is under a [Modified General Community Quarantine] but I’m prompted by the situation to revert to stricter measures at the barangay level,” beginning on Saturday (August 1), he said in an online post.

The latest cases of local transmission were traced to workers employed in Metro Manila, he said.

Pineda also advised mayors to prepare local quarantine sites in the event many residents turn out to be close contacts of individuals who are suspected carriers of the disease.

“In such a situation, I will dispatch our mobile swab testing van to the barangay and isolate the close contacts locally,” he said.

The local governments of Apalit, Minalin and San Luis have each dealt with as many as 50 close contacts of infected patients, the governor said.

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