QUARANTINE PROTOCOL NOT STRICTLY ENFORCED

PANGASINAN will go the way of the National Capital Region + if no serious efforts are made to quarantine patients or if local governments will continue to take quarantine very lightly.

This was the warning of Wilson Chua, CEO of the Dagupan-based Bitstop, Inc., who is now working in Singapore but who continues to analyze the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines, particularly in Pangasinan and Dagupan City.

Reacting to the story in the April 11-17, 2021 issue of The PUNCH that Dagupan is again back near the epicenter of the pandemic in Pangasinan with 102 active cases recorded, Chua had a different take on the story. “If isolation facilities are full then the city government must be doing its job,” he said.

But he pointed out in his post on April 13 that the matrix to watch is the quarantine ratio showing Dagupan scored zero percent in quarantine ratio per data he culled from reports of the Department of Health (DOH) as well as the Provincial Health Office (PHO).

“What may be needed – aside from better contact tracing  – is containment strategy that allows quarantine (at home, street or purok level) to augment resources,” he continued.

Chua cited Butuan City’s impressive  77% quarantine ratio, which means that every 100 positive cases, 77 of them were quarantined “and not out in the community spreading the virus”.

Butuan City, capital of Agusan del  Norte, was rated by Chua as having the highest quarantine rate of 77.73418% compared to other LGUs all over the country, with 280 cases quarantined, 82 cases not quarantined from a case count of 362.

Dagupan, according to Chua, is currently at 0% quarantine ratio, meaning that none of its 156 cases in the past 30 days were placed under quarantine.

“I hope it is not too late for Dagupan. Maybe, the CHO (City Health Office) and DRRMO (Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office) can get together on this,”

The graph presented by Chua covered 30 cities and municipalities (there are 48 towns and cities of Pangasinan) that showed Dagupan with the highest number of positive cases, not one was quarantined

In this chart, Dagupan had 0.0000 % quarantine ratio with 0 case quarantined, 145 cases not quarantined from a case count of 145.

Like Dagupan, Alaminos City registered 0.0000% quarantine ratio, 0 case quarantined, 114 cases not quarantined from a case count of 110.

Urdaneta City has the highest quarantine ratio among four cities in Pangasinan at 1.075396 %, but with just one case quarantined; 92 cases not quarantined, from 93 case count.

San Carlos City also has 0.0000% quarantine ratio, 0 quarantined, 65 cases not quarantined and 65 case count.

“ I am alarmed  at Pangasinan’s quarantine efforts. Close to 1.07% na lang. This means that out of 100 positive COVID cases, about 1 person is quarantined. What happened to the other 99?.” Chua asked earlier in his post on April 9.

He maintained that those not quarantined go about their daily lives and spread COVID further.

Chua concluded” “Pangasinan will go the way of NCR+.  Can we afford this to happen?”

Among municipalities cited by Chua, San Fabian which has the highest quarantined ratio at 15 percent while Binalonan, Mapandan and Mangatarem registered minimal quarantine
efforts while the remaining towns had a zero quarantine. (Leonardo Micua)

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