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Cagayan under state of calamity amid Covid-19 scare

By Villamor Visaya, Jr.

March 14, 2020, 4:35 pm

<p><strong>MEETING VS. COVID-19.</strong> Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba (seated, in white shirt) declares a state of calamity during an emergency meeting of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council at the Kamaranan Hall of the Provincial Capitol in Tuguegarao City on Saturday (March 14, 2020). A home quarantine will also be imposed on villagers who came from Metro Manila. <em>(PNA photo by Villamor Visaya Jr.)</em></p>

MEETING VS. COVID-19. Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba (seated, in white shirt) declares a state of calamity during an emergency meeting of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council at the Kamaranan Hall of the Provincial Capitol in Tuguegarao City on Saturday (March 14, 2020). A home quarantine will also be imposed on villagers who came from Metro Manila. (PNA photo by Villamor Visaya Jr.)

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Governor Manuel Mamba declared a state of calamity in Cagayan on Saturday as the provincial government hatched measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) here.

Presiding over the Cagayan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council emergency meeting, Mamba ordered the temporary closure of the Cagayan Sports Complex, Cagayan Museum, Cagayan Provincial Learning Resource Center, and Callao Caves to prevent the spread of the disease.

"A lockdown has been proposed but it will be up to the higher authorities to approve it," he said. "Most people here need to work for their daily subsistence so it is very hard to implement a lockdown."

Mamba also ordered the suspension of classes in all school levels, both private and public, "to resume until further notice."

He prodded parents to watch their children as the "vacationing students must confine themselves in their homes while classes are suspended."

Mamba also tasked the barangay officials to monitor and ensure that villagers who came from Metro Manila would undergo home quarantine for 14 days.

Dr. Carlos Cortina III, Cagayan provincial health officer, said: "there is no substitute to proper hygiene by always washing hands and having a healthy body."

Cortina, who moved for the declaration of the state of calamity, has also pushed for the creation of an inter-agency task force.

At least 26 persons showing symptoms of Covid-19 were the latest patients in Cagayan and they all traveled to countries with a history of the disease.

Tuguegarao City Mayor Jefferson Soriano has ordered the health office to disinfect classrooms used during the National Schools Press Conference that ended on March 13.

Cagayan is also bugged by the African swine fever, with cases in Solana and Amulung towns. (PNA)


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