LAOAG CITY – Residents of Bangui, Ilocos Norte are being discouraged to go out of their homes except for essential activities such as buying food and medicines following a spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases traced to a mass gathering in the area.
To regulate the movement of people, Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc placed Bangui town under localized modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status for five days, starting Tuesday (June 22).
Next to this capital city with 165 total active cases, Bangui ranks second with 86 active cases to date, based on the day-to-day report of the provincial health task force.
With this, boundary control personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP), in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, established checkpoints in all entrance and exit points of the municipality to ensure unnecessary entry of people during the five-day MECQ.
Curfew and liquor ban will also be in place in the municipality from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m.
In a radio interview, Dr. Vangie de Guzman said Tuesday that mass swabbing is ongoing in Barangays Masikil and Lanao where most of the infected residents came from.
“The primary contacts of positive Covid-19 patients will remain under strict home quarantine for 14 days regardless of negative RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) result,” she added as she appealed to all residents to cooperate with local authorities to arrest the further spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the municipal government has also suspended the arrival of locally-stranded individuals for a period of two weeks. (PNA)
