SITUATION UNDER CONTROL

THERE was no official recommendation received so far that Pangasinan and Dagupan City should revert back to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) from its present Modified General Community Quarantine (MGSQ) status.

This was jointly stressed by Dr. Rhouel Bobis, COVID-19 focal person in Region 1, and Dr. Anna de Guzman, provincial health officer, when they joined the Virtual KBP Pangasinan Forum on Thursday.

Bobis said such a recommendation can only be decided by the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Dagupan City IATF.

Earlier, Dr. Joseph Roland Mejia, chief of the Region 1 Medical Center, recommended the reversion of Pangasinan and Dagupan City to ECQ status because of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases being brought to R1MC for confinement and treatment.

San Fernando City and Caba town in La Union were reverted back to ECQ from MGCQ this week on recommendations of their mayors due to a perceived rise of COVID-19 cases in their areas.

When La Union situation was cited, whose cases were lower than Pangasinan, Bobis said it cannot be compared and pointed to Gov. Amado Espino III’s timely and proper responses to COVID-19 patients that resulted in many recoveries of patients.

Dr. De Guzman, on the other hand, said that new COVID-19 cases in the province are mainly attributed to returning Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who had documents to show that they tested negative, only to be tested positive in Pangasinan because they were exposed to cases while in Metro Manila.

At the same time, De Guzman said the case findings or expanded targeting mass testing conducted by the PHO led to the discovery of a few positive cases in different towns of Pangasinan. (Leonardo Micua)

 

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments