REMINDERS. Members of Quezon City’s Department of Public Order and Safety and Task Force Traffic and Transport Management go around residential areas, roads, and markets in Barangay Pinyahan on Monday (Aug. 2, 2021). They reminded residents to wear their masks properly to avoid paying fines of PHP300 (first offense), PHP500 (second offense), and PHP1,000 (third offense). (Photo courtesy of QC Government)
MANILA – For two weeks now, 26 are classified as Special Concern Lockdown Areas (SCLA) in Quezon City because of the rising number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
The latest placed under SCLA on Tuesday was a compound in Barangay Kaligayahan in Novaliches.
Under SCLA, residents and those at risk are tested and those found positive were isolated.
Mayor Joy Belmonte asked for residents’ understanding and to view the lockdown positively.
“Preemptive na ang ating lockdown. Kumbaga kung nakita na natin na yung lugar medyo masikip, densely populated, may mga suspected cases kahit na hindi positive, maaari talagang (Our lockdown is preemptive. If we see that an area is densely populated, with suspected cases even if they are not positive, it could be a) breeding ground for Covid, we already lockdown for the purpose of mass testing),” Belmonte said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency.
The city has no recorded Delta variant case as per data from the Department of Health (DOH) but Belmonte said she will not be surprised if ever there will be one.
“Sa bilis ng paghawa ng mga tao at sa bilis ng pagtaas ng mga kaso dito, hindi ako nagtataka kung meron na kaming kaso dito na hindi lang na-identify pa ng (With the fast rate of infection and the rising number of cases here, I will not be surprised that we already have a case here that has not been identified yet by the) DOH through their genome sequencing,” Belmonte said.
As the center of activities, Belmonte said the National Capital Region is prone to the highly transmissible variant.
As of Sunday, the city has 2,608 active Covid-19 cases and 104,122 recoveries out of confirmed 107,952 infections.
A total of 1,222 have died since the pandemic was declared in March last year.
The enhanced community quarantine on Aug. 6 to 20 will mean stricter protocols and residents are expected to comply.
“Ang panawagan ko lang itong Delta variant ay kakaiba talaga siya kumpara dun sa iba (The Delta variant is a lot different from the others). It is highly infectious and even more vicious than the previous variants,” Belmonte said. (PNA)
