Provinces and highly urbanized cities of Western Visayas (Region 6) have appealed for their current quarantine status to be retained until the end of this month instead of being elevated to a stricter classification.
“The LCES (local chief executives) submitted their appeals to maintain status quo of the current quarantine classification instead of the escalated ones provided by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) for consideration,” Christian Nagaynay, the head secretariat of the Western Visayas Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF 6), said in an interview Wednesday.
Nagaynay said the RIATF 6 and the Regional Task Force (RTF) Against Covid-19 convened together with the LCEs and discussed their actions regarding the initial classification and came up with a joint resolution.
The recommendation containing the letters of appeal from LGUs and the resolution jointly passed by RIATF and RTF was sent directly to Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing who sits as head of the screening committee of the national IATF.
As per initial classification by the national IATF, only Guimaras and Negros Occidental will be retained under the general community quarantine (GCQ) while the city and province of Iloilo will be placed on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and the rest of the provinces and Bacolod City will be on modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) starting July 16 until end of this month.
Currently, the province and city of Iloilo are on MECQ and the rest of the provinces and Bacolod City are on GCQ.
During the meeting, Nagaynay said the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD) and the Economic Recovery Plans Cluster in their presentations provided the picture of the implications of the stricter quarantine classifications in the region.
“The appeal is to retain our current quarantine classification as of this time since we have data provided from the DOH that the parameters that we consider are also decreasing or de-escalating,” Nagaynay said.
“They (national IATF) will be meeting tonight. We hope that after their meeting tonight they will be able to give us the results of their deliberation,” he added.
The DOH WV CHD in its July 13, 2021 situational report on the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the region said cases were showing slow decline although the provinces of Aklan and Antique and cities of Iloilo and Bacolod are at moderate risk classification.
It was still high risk for Iloilo City and moderate risk for Capiz and Guimaras regarding health care utilization.
As of July 13, the region has 61,548 recoveries; 10,857 active cases, and 1,712 deaths.
Source: Philippines News Agency
