By Froilan Gallardo, Special Correspondent .
A SURGE in Covid-19 cases in Iligan City has prompted local officials to ask the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to allow them to go back to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) status to prevent more infections in the coming days.
Iligan Mayor Celso Regencia said the ECQ would start on Monday once the IATF approves the local goveenment’s request.
Regencia said the medical situation in Iligan City has “became dire” with 21 of their 44 barangays have third-degree local transmissions.
Department of Health Region 10 Director Dr. Adriano Suba-an said 64 Covid-19 cases were recorded since Aug. 3 up to Aug. 13.
Suba-an said the spike of Covid-19 cases has threatened to swamp the bed capacity of Iligan’s hospitals and isolation units.
He also said front liners have face difficulty in tracing the contacts made by the infected patients.
“We have noted that there are positive cases now in iligan city that we could no longer connect where the patient was infected,” Suba-an said.
He confirmed that they received a request from Mayor Regencia to place the entire city of Iligan under ECQ status.
Suba-an said however, there are other factors like economics; peace and order to consider before the request for ECQ would be approved.
“Iligan is a highly urbanized city. We in the regional IATF has to recommend that the National Inter-Agency Task Force,” Suba-an told reporters.
Suba-an said the situation in Iligan is “scary” and more stringent measures like ECQ should be implemented to “nip in the bud” the Covid-19 infections in the city.
“We have to contain, we have to act now to cut it in the bud, or else baka di na tayo makahabol,” he said.
Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno said he will not order the police to stop Covid-19 patients from coming to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center to seek shelter.
The Cagayan de Oro Health Office said four Covid-19 patients from Iligan City have arrived at the NMMC, the main hospital in Northern Mindanao for the treatment of the virus.
Moreno also offered to the Iligan City local government the use of some of Cagayan de Oro’s isolation units if they need them.
“Let us forget our borders. We are all in the same boat in this pandemic. We should extend our help to Iligan,” he said.
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