The provincial government of Kalinga has sought an escalation to Alert Level 3 to control the sudden surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections in just over a week.
“We are asking from the Regional Inter-agency Task Force (RIATF) to include Kalinga in Alert Level 3 because we are not under critical, high risk. Because biglang lumobo (there was sudden increase) in Covid-19 cases,” Governor Ferdinand Tubban Jr. said during the Network Briefing News on Tuesday.
From zero cases logged from December 25 to January 1, Tubban said the surge started on January 2 with only two active cases.
As of Monday, the province, which is currently under Alert Level 2, has 87 active Covid-19 cases.
Tubban said that as early as January 2, he met with leaders of the province, including the municipal leaders to plan and come up with executive orders appropriate to their respective areas to be able to control or manage the increasing Covid cases.
“We have a different situation so we wanted each municipality to have its order,” Tubban said.
He said the provincial IATF has also issued an order for all workers in government at all levels who report to offices within Kalinga to submit a negative test result if they want to report for work.
He also mentioned the initiative done by Pinukpuk municipal mayor Irving Dasayon who ordered that all municipal workers be subjected to testing.
Tubban said the test yielded 20 positive cases that were quarantined and subjected to a confirmatory polymerase chain reaction test.
As part of the preventive measures, the governor said the province, national government agencies and the community, continue to aid each other in informing those unvaccinated on the gains of the vaccine.
He said there are 70 barangays in the province which are classified as Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) where delivery of social and basic services including the vaccination is a challenge.
“Tulung-tulong po tayo dito para marating ang lahat lalo na ang bakuna para sa proteksyon ng lahat (we help each other for everyone to be reached by the protection provided by the vaccine),” he said.
Tubban said 79 percent of the eligible adult population in their province have at least one dose of the vaccine while 72 percent have received complete doses.
Source: Philippines News Agency
