Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores. Image from Province of Aklan website
MANILA, Philippines — The governor of Aklan said Wednesday he will request the national government to place the province under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest lockdown, if COVID-19 cases in their area will continue to rise.
Governor Florencio Miraflores said the province saw a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths since May this year as he fears that the highly contagious Delta variant may have already entered their province.
“Sobrang taas na [ng cases]. ‘Yung aming tinatawag na average daily attack rate (ADAR) ay tumataas na. Ang aming positivity rate is 40 to 50 percent. So masyadong mataas. Starting May lang ito. Nagsurge kami dito ng May, June, July,” he told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
(The cases are really high. Our average daily attack rate is increasing. Our positivity rate is at 40 to 50 percent. So this is really high. It only started in May. We saw a surge in cases in May, June, and July.)
ADAR is derived by dividing the number of new COVID-19 cases in a city or province over a two-week period with its population, while the positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive among the total number of individuals tested.
“Kung tumuloy pa itong pagtaas ng mga kaso, hihingi din ako ng higher classification ng ECQ kasi kailangan talaga namin ngayon ng tulong ng ating national government,” Miraflores added.
(If the increase in cases will continue, I will ask for a higher quarantine classification, an ECQ, because we really need the help of the national government.)
Aklan, previously under GCQ with heightened restrictions, is now under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until August 15. Miraflores had requested the national government to place the province under MECQ due to its increasing COVID-19 cases.
There is no confirmed case of the Delta variant yet in the province, according to the governor.
“But ‘yung unang Delta variant na lumabas dito sa Panay, part ng Antique, ay boundary namin dito sa Aklan. We are just waiting for results of genome sequencing ng mga pinadala namin sa Manila if there is already a Delta variant dito,” he said.
(But the first Delta variant recorded in Panay was at the boundary of Aklan. We are just waiting for results of the genome sequencing of the samples we sent to Manila so we can know if there is already a Delta variant here.)
“Ang aming hinala ay baka nakapasok na dito ang Delta variant (We suspect that the Delta variant has already entered our province),” he added.
Miraflores said COVID-19 deaths are also increasing in Aklan. He said that from March 2020 to April this year, the total deaths in the province were at 47, which rapidly increased to 137 in the last three months.
The governor earlier advised mayors in the province to prepare burial grounds in their respective municipalities for residents who died from the COVID-19 because the lone crematory on Panay Island is already overwhelmed with the number of deaths amid the continued surge in cases.