THE Pangasinan Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force recommended last week to place ten towns and two cities in the province under a two-week lockdown to curb the rising COVID-19 cases after Pangasinan logged 344 new active COVID-19 new case, in a one day, the highest since the pandemic started.

Recommended to implement a 2-week total lockdown are Pozorrubio, Calasiao, Urdaneta City, Lingayen, Bugallon, Sison, Villasis, Aguilar, Infanta, Sta. Barbara, Dagupan City, Villasis and Binmaley.

Provincial Health Officer Anna de Guzman said Wednesday in a phone interview that it remains “a proposal (to the regional IATF) because they (towns) have already crossed the critical zone”.

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Gov. Amado Espino III on August 24 issued a clarification over the recommendation report that reaching the 25% does not mean automatic lockdown or upgrading of quarantine classification.

 He said local chief executives of the affected towns and cities must submit their request for higher quarantine classification of their respective jurisdictions based on the recommendation of city/municipal IATFs.

 The mayors or city/municipal IATFs requests shall serve as the main consideration of the Provincial IATF COVID Management Team to decide on the appropriate quarantine classification of the affected towns and cities.

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De Guzman said the Omnibus Guidelines of the National IATF prescribes that  if 25 percent of the town’s barangays are considered “critical zone” due to clustered cases, the town will have to implement more stringent community quarantine.

Pozorrubio: 14 of 34 barangays infected / Calasiao: 16 of 24 barangays infected / Urdaneta City: 15 of 24 barangays infected / Lingayen: 8 of 24 barangays infected / Bugallon: 7 of 24 barangays infected / Sison: 7 of 28 barangays infected / Aguilar: 7 of 16 barangays infected / Infanta: 4 of 13 barangays infected / Sta. Barbara: 24 of 29 barangays infected / Dagupan City: 24 of 31 barangays infected / Villasis: 9 of 29 barangays infected/ Binmaley: 9 of 33 barangays infected.

Of those in the list, Dagupan City is deemed in the most critical situation because, as of August 23, it logged the highest number of active COVID-19 cases at 358 and still counting.

“They are already considered critical zone,” she said.

She cited the case of Pozorrubio that has 34 barangays and affected are 14 barangays or 41 percent, therefore, it is a “critical zone”.

In such a situation, granular lockdown will no longer be enough because the entire municipality is already affected, she said.

De Guzman said per instruction of Gov. Amado Espino III, she called here counterparts in the municipal /city health officers and urged them to discuss their “critical zone” situation with their respective mayors.

The first to respond was Villasis Mayor Nonato Abrenica whose local IATF approved a resolution placing the town under General Community Quarantine with heightened restrictions from Aug. 17 to Aug. 31 to curb the spread of the town’s active cases. It acknowledged that majority of the COVID-19 cases were detected in families and relatives sharing the same houses and compounds, and workers infected their fellow workers in the same work places.

De Guzman is hopeful other towns/city with high number of active COVID cases to follow what Villasis did.

However, Calasiao Mayor Joseph Bauzon said he is only prepared to implement granular (compound) lockdown in areas where there are many COVID cases, citing the need to strike a balance between economy and health of the people.

De Guzman expressed her concern that if the surge in cases in Calasiao is not stopped, Mayor Bauzon will have no hospitals where he can rush more infected patients because the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) and other private hospitals have stopped to accepting COVID patients.

She said PHO will appeal to Calasiao Mayor Bauzon to reconsider the town’s decision.

She said the PPH right now is already using tents as temporary shelter for COVID patients as its bed capacity is already full.

“This is the reason why we are urging local officials to implement stricter community quarantine in spite of MGCQ (Modified General Community Quarantine) status in the province.” (Leonardo Micua/Eva Visperas/Ahikam Pasion/Jerick Pasiliao)

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