Ilocos Norte capital placed under ECQ

LAOAG CITY—This capital city of Ilocos Norte is back again under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for two weeks starting Sunday, August 1, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb, officials said on Saturday.

In an executive order, Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc said that he decided to place the province under the strictest quarantine classification in the country due to an upsurge of cases in recent days.

Aside from the city, Manotoc also placed the coastal town of Pagudpud, one of Ilocos Norte’s top tourist drawers, under the same quarantine curb.

Laoag City remains to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 1,018 active ones, while Pagudpud has 143, according to the data from the provincial government.

Meanwhile, the towns of Bacarra (223 active cases), Badoc (69), Burgos (4), and Pinili (25) were placed by Manotoc under localized general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions.

On Sunday, the entire Ilocos Norte also reverted to modified ECQ, the second restrictive quarantine classification in the country, just as it recorded 312 new infections on Saturday, an all-time high in the province since the pandemic began last year.

As of July 31, Ilocos Norte has recorded 8,155 total cases, of which 3,170 remain active while 4,861 had recovered and 124 had died.