BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Task Force (RTF) Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) and the local government of Tabuk City have placed two villages under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and ordered the testing anew of all residents after the aggressive community testing done in these areas showed a very high positivity rate.
Albert Mogol, RTF Covid-19 chairman and also head of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, on Monday said the local government has locked down Barangays Malinawa and Balawang upon the recommendation of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) that is in charge of the ongoing testing in Kalinga.
Malinawa showed a 33 percent positivity rate while Balawang has 11 percent and both have low test turn-out in the mass testing that the National Task Force (NTF) Covid-19 has initiated.
“Pina-lock down natin sila at pinapaulit ang testing para makuha natin ang totoong sitwasyon doon (we placed the villages under lockdown and we will conduct another testing so that we can see the actual situation there),” Mogol said.
“There might be other Covid-19 positive who were not yet tested,” he added.
On Feb. 20, Tabuk Mayor Darwin Estrañero has issued Executive Order 11-2021 placing the two villages under lockdown to intensify contact tracing and to prevent further transmission and spread of Covid-19.
He also ordered that all officials and residents submit themselves for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
Estrañero also ordered the observance of strict home quarantine in all households and limited movement of people.
The order also prevented minors, senior citizens, pregnant women, sick and immunocompromised individuals from going out of their residences except for medical emergencies.
Estrañero also ordered the imposition of a curfew from 8:00 in the evening to 5:00 a.m. A liquor ban was also imposed.
Mass transportation at the said villages was also ordered halted.
With the strict implementation of the quarantine rules, the mayor also ordered the setting up of checkpoints to and from the said villages.
Tabuk City and the rest of the municipalities in Kalinga are undergoing aggressive testing that started on Feb. 18 targetting 8,000 tests for the whole province. The testing is in response to the monitored high surges of Covid-19 cases in the province.
The PCR testing in the towns of Pasil and Lubuagan will be done after the tests at Tabuk City are done.
As of Feb. 21, Kalinga province has 356 active cases with 51 new Covid-19 cases. It has logged a total of 1,910 cases since 2020. (PNA)
