TACLOBAN CITY – Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone has placed the entire province under general community quarantine (GCQ) for 14 days following a spike in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
The GCQ status in the province took effect on Friday and will end on Nov. 20.
As of Friday, the province has 150 COVID-19 cases (82 active cases and three deaths).
Eastern Samar, composed of Borongan City and 22 municipalities, has experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases for the past days.
Only the municipalities of Balangkayan, Jipapad, and Can-avid remain COVID-free.
Last November 4 alone, the province recorded 35 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day case increase.
Placing of the entire province under a stricter quarantine status was approved on Nov. 6 by members of the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force.
On Friday night, the Department of Health (DOH) announced 72 new COVID-19 cases of which 15 were from Eastern Samar.
One of the new COVID-19 patients involved a contact tracer who is assigned in Giporlos town.
As of Saturday, Easter Visayas has 7,218 COVID-19 cases with 68 deaths.