Lucena logs highest single-day COVID-19 cases amid MECQ

LUCENA CITY—The number of active COVID-19 cases in this city rose Wednesday to 285, the highest cumulative number of COVID-19-infected persons on any given day since the pandemic began last year.

The Lucena Interagency Task Force (IATF) recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total daily active cases higher than the 279 recorded on October 21 last year.

On Monday, Lucena City, the capital of Quezon province, was placed under the strict modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

The city had been under the more relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) since last month.

The local police put up Wednesday checkpoints to ensure that only authorized persons outside residence (Apor) and essential workers are allowed to enter the city.

Janet Gendrano, head of the city’s IATF incident command post, said most of the new COVID-19 cases had a history of travel outside the city where they possibly contracted the virus.

But authorities scrapped the plan to require negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results from all persons entering the city.

Mayor Roderick Alcala opted not to implement the required RT-PCR or antigen test after a backlash from residents.

Gendrano earlier announced the requirement, which the city’s IATF recommended to curb the spike of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Some local officials, including Councilor Sunshine Abcede-Llaga, who chairs the council’s committee on social welfare, assailed the local IATF recommendation.

She said the imposition would be contrary to the “Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines” issued on May 20 by the national IATF.

She said the guidelines allow Apor, health workers, government officials and employees, patients needing medical help, and other essential travelers to enter any locality regardless of its community quarantine status.

While the swab test requirement had been scrapped, those within the city have to abide by the 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew, prohibition on drinking liquor in public places, ban on non-essential mass gatherings and limit on religious gatherings that were spelled out in Executive Order No. 014 (EO 014) issued by Alcala on June 16.

The mayor has also reactivated the 600-strong village marshals who will patrol the streets of the city’s 33 barangays to ensure compliance to COVID-19 health protocols, such as the wearing of face masks and shields and EO 014.

The village marshals were first organized in December last year, but were disbanded when cases in the city dropped.

On March 7, the total active cases in the city were down to seven, only to spike in May until they reached their current level.

LZB