Mayor warned on ‘radical’ easing of protocols

BAGUIO CITY—Mayor Gabino Ganggangan of Sadanga town in Mountain Province has been warned about the consequences of relaxing quarantine rules and other health protocols in his town, a Department of Health (DOH) official said on Wednesday.

Dr. Ruby Constantino, Cordillera director of the DOH, said the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) called Ganggangan’s attention for “radically” easing quarantine rules on Feb. 13.

Cordillera region had shifted to stricter general community quarantine for the entire month of February.

In a press briefing here, Constantino said the IATF had asked Ganggangan to comply with the task force’s guidelines while refuting the mayor’s COVID-19 protocols.

Ganggangan issued what he called the “Sadanga new normal” policy that lifted all lockdown restrictions, 14-day quarantine requirements for people entering the town or who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients, and all travel bans.

Lockdowns and quarantines have slowed down instead of eliminating COVID-19, the mayor said in a public advisory posted online last week.

Gabino Ganggangan —CARLITO DAR

Counterproductive?

He described the IATF mandatory health protocols as “counterproductive” and “more damaging” to Sadanga’s economy and its cultural way of life.

The DOH had classified Mountain Province as a “high epidemic risk” based on its latest average daily attack rate that measures the proportion of infected cases against the rest of the population.

But on Feb. 22, the province was also classified as a “low epidemic risk” based on its two-week growth rate.

Mountain Province saw COVID-19 cases peak on Jan. 20 followed by the discovery there of the COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom, Constantino said.

Seventeen patients with the mutated virus in the Cordillera have since recovered, but another died and was considered the lone UK variant fatality in the country so far.

As of Feb. 22, Sadanga had 30 active COVID-19 cases out of 67 cases since last year.

Ganggangan said quarantines paralyzed the economy and have now been discouraged as a “community response” to the pandemic.

He prescribed lemon and calamansi juice for residents to boost their immune system, and mandated the inhalation of steam (locally known as “soob”) when they contract COVID-19 or the flu.

The mayor also required severe infection cases to be isolated at home so they could be cared for by their immediate family and health responders.

But Ganggangan still requires residents to wear face masks and shields, and to observe physical distancing.

On Thursday, Ganggangan said he already received a copy of the IATF’s letter and the guidelines it prescribed.

When asked how he intend to respond, he said: “There’s nothing there [in the IATF’s letter that says] I have to amend my policy.”

The task force did not discourage the mayor from relying on boosting the community’s immune system, as well as resorting to soob, because local practices provide “psychological relief,” Constantino said.

Dr. Martin Apopot, a Sadanga-based physician, questioned Ganggangan for “throwing in the towel” in the war against the pandemic, stressing that removing travel restrictions and quarantines could lead to outbreaks that would strain the town’s health-care system.

“Quarantine is not for the healing of infected people but for limiting the spread of infection,” Apopot said in an open letter to Ganggangan on Feb. 14. —Vincent Cabreza