(FILE) FIGHTING VIRUS Health workers in Bayambang, Pangasinan, collect specimens, through swabbing, as the provincial government starts mass testing as an initial step to contain the spread of the coronavirus. —PHOTO COURTESY OF PANGASINAN PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE
CALASIAO, Pangasinan — The Pangasinan Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseases recommended to the regional IATF to place the province under a general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions, from September 1-15.
Resolution No. 5, which contains the recommendation, was passed on August 27 by the Pangasinan IATF-EID to mitigate the COVID-19 situation in the province, citing the need to implement a community quarantine stricter than modified GCQ, at least for a period of 15 days.
“There has been an unusual increase in COVID-19 cases in the province of Pangasinan. From August 21, the average daily new cases jumped from 93 to 388, and on August 26, 2021, the province and the city of Dagupan recorded 592 new cases,” the resolution said.
The daily cases recorded on August 26 were the highest number of cases in one day in the province which has reached a total of 18,526 confirmed cases since the pandemic started last year.
The resolution also said the public and private hospitals in Pangasinan have reached their maximum dedicated bed capacity for COVID-19 cases, forcing the consideration of alternative quarantine facilities such as hotels, lodging facilities, and classrooms.
The Regional Medical Center, the referral hospital for COVID cases, has closed its out-patient department and converted it into a COVID-19 ward after the original 120 beds for COVID-19 patients were fully occupied.
Pangasinan is under MGCQ until August 31.