10 Quezon villages on lockdown due to COVID-19

LUCENA CITY — Ten barangays in the town of Mauban in Quezon province have been placed under temporary lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the municipality.

The municipal government explained in a social media post on Wednesday that the local Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) recommended closing the borders of the 10 villages during an emergency meeting on Tuesday night.

The local IATF has declared the villages of Polo, Bagong Bayan, and Daungan as “critical zone;” and Sadsaran, Mabato, Rizaliana, Lual Poblacion, Lual Bo, Soledad, and Santol as “containment zone.”

It revealed that all 20 validated COVID-19 patients and their close contacts, and the suspected and probable virus carriers in the town are residents of the isolated villages.

As a precaution, all residents of the 10 isolated villages were prohibited from going out of their houses from August 5 to 12.

Only those who would seek medical attention and have passes to buy essential goods were exempted from the strict quarantine protocol.

As of Wednesday, the coastal town facing Lamon Bay reported that aside from its 20 confirmed cases, it has identified 43 suspected virus carriers, 12 probable COVID-19 cases, and 246 close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients.

At least 82 individuals await the result of their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test to determine if they are infected.

LZB