ONLY 1 BARANGAY COVID-FREE

THE COVID-19 situation in Dagupan City is alarming health officials after it registered a record high of 54 new cases on August 24, the biggest surge in a single day since the contagion began, raising its active cases that day to a new high of 404, with just 30 patients recovered.

Fortunately, the number of active cases dropped the following day, August 25, to 376 when 56 patients recovered compared to 27 new cases that were registered, with one fatality.

Dr. Ophelia Rivera, COVID-19 focal person in Dagupan, attributed the rise of cases in the city to transmission in workplaces and urged workers to stay home if they are feeling unwell or have flu-like symptoms like colds, cough, fatigue and fever.

With 28 of its 31 barangays already infected, Dagupan has already overshot many times the 25 percent critical zone or threshold set under the Omnibus Guidelines of the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

The situation led the Provincial IATF to recommend Dagupan among the 12 LGUs in Pangasinan to be placed under a higher quarantine status.

Meanwhile, City Mayor Brian Lim has not indicated he is prepared to place some residences, streets and sitios under granular lockdown to keep the close contacts of sick residents in their homes and prevent them from spreading the virus to other persons until they all show negative RT-PCR results.

Some barangay officials said they are waiting for the mayor to order granular lockdowns and are ready to enforce it. However, they wonder how the city government can provide families in lockdown areas at least with food support.

Meanwhile, Lim is reportedly preparing a building of the Bonuan Boquig National High School and another at the East Central Elementary School as additional isolation facilities for mild symptomatic cases.

On August 25, Lim issued Executive Order No. 27 ordering a qualified liquor ban in the city which will still allow the buying and selling of liquor but prohibits the serving of liquor in restaurants, bars and public spaces as well as the drinking of liquor in all public places.

The same executive order expanded the curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. from the previous 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew.

Based on his earlier Executive Order No. 25, no one is allowed to enter all public markets in Dagupan without a face mask and face shield, assembly and gatherings are prohibited, senior citizens from 65 years old and up as well as minors will not be allowed to go out of their respective residences and the every Sunday Run and Bike along the De Venecia Expressway was suspended.

A report said members of the Public Order and Safety Office were circulating the mayor’s executive order in the commercial district asking for strict compliance with the minimum health and safety protocols.

At one time, checkpoint operations were intensified along the national highway in Barangay Lucao where motorists were being asked if they had any “S” pass and documents if they are not Authorized Persons Outside of Residence and if they came from outside Pangasinan.

But motorists said there was no such checkpoint in other entry points of Dagupan City from the south and east.

As of August 25, Bonuan Gueset led with 62 active cases, followed by Pantal (47), Bonuan Boquig (36), Lucao (29), Malued (25), Caranglaan (25), Mayombo (27), Tapuac (22), Pogo Chico (12), Bonuan Binloc (12), Barangay II & III (10), Bolosan (10), Poblacion Oeste (9), Pogo Grande (8), Lasip Grande (7), Tambac (6), Barangay IV (5), Hererro-Perez (5), Mangin (5), Calmay (4). Tebeng (4). (Leonardo Micua)

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