City Hall of Zamboanga (PNA file photo)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Local officials here will be studying the possibility of downgrading the city's quarantine status to the less strict general community quarantine effective November 16.
This was after Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar on Thursday ordered the City Health Office to review the current Covid-19 situation and projections for November to determine if the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) team under the local Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) could recommend relaxing restrictions here.
This city was placed under a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) on October 16 from GCQ following the recent surge in cases of Covid-19.
However, the number of active cases of Covid-19 has seen a downtrend starting October 28. From 2,460 on October 28, the number went down to 2,145 as of November 2.
Salazar has also ordered the EOC to study measures that would pave the way for the lifting of the city's Sunday lockdown policy.
The Sunday lockdown policy has been imposed since August, this year, as part of measures to curb Covid-19 transmission amid the threat of new variants, including the delta variant which is blamed for the spike in cases.
During the lockdown, only those going to places of worship, health front-liners, security front-liners, and disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) personnel, as well as those in emergency situations and involved in the food delivery services are allowed to go out on Sundays.
Meanwhile, Salazar appealed to the public anew to strictly adhere to the minimum health standards and to get vaccinated when their turn comes so that the city can achieve the 70-percent first dose vaccination target by November 15, and 50-percent full vaccination status by December 25.
“We appeal to everyone to wear masks and have themselves vaccinated as we will rally our people to reach 70 percent first dose vaccination by Nov. 15 and God willing 50 percent fully vaccinated by Dec. 25, 2021,” she said.
Data from the CHO showed that 185,330 or 27 percent of the target eligible population of 694,696 have been fully vaccinated since the start of the vaccination program in March this year.
The first dose of the Covid-19 vaccines, meanwhile, has reached 282,022 individuals or 41 percent of the target eligible population. (PNA)
