BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia appealed to the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) to reconsider its recommendation to the national IATF to escalate the city's quarantine status to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), and instead retain its general community quarantine (GCQ) until July 31, 2021.

In its letter dated July 14 and addressed to Juan Jovian Ingeniero, OIC-regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Western Visayas and chairperson of regional IATF Covid-19, Leonardia said that as the local chief executive, he must make difficult choices.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic, is first and foremost, a health crisis. However, it has rapidly become an economic one too. Many Bacolodnons have already lost their jobs and businesses because of the prolonged community quarantine.

"We cannot afford to add more restrictions that can result in dire consequences in our economy and cause more hardships to already suffering families," he added.

On Tuesday afternoon, July 13, the city officials were informed that Bacolod City was recommended to be placed under MECQ from July 16 to 31, 2021.

Leonardia said the city's tireless efforts to contain the virus, through the strict implementation of the prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, and reintegration (PDITR) strategy, including expanded testing, intensified contact tracing, strict border controls, restricting mass gatherings, curfew, liquor ban and alternative work arrangement in both government and private offices, have resulted in reduction of additional cases during the last two weeks.

"We are continuously working to expand our healthcare capacities including providing additional beds and hiring health workers. The healthcare capacity utilization in all tertiary private and government hospitals in Bacolod is at 64 percent only half of which is from Bacolod City while the rest are Covid-19 patients from other local government units in the province of Negros Occidental," he said.

He added that as of July 13, there are 1,435 active Covid-19 cases out of the total 14,110 accumulated cases in Bacolod City. Recoveries have reached 12,343 or 87.47 percent, which correlates to good management and treatment of Covid-19 cases.

The mayor noted that there are 15 Covid-19 deaths for the month of July, while there were 61 deaths last month.

"There is a significant indication of a continuous reduction of additional cases in the city. We have added isolation or quarantine facilities to accommodate any possible surge of cases. Department of Health Region-VI data shows the utilization rate of our isolation facilities is only 25 percent," Leonardia said.

He said during the recent two weeks, there is a significant decrease of Covid-19 cases, with the average daily attack rate of 10.18 down from 17.49 during the previous three to four weeks, and two-week growth rate of 42 percent from 22.82 percent three to four weeks ago.

Leonardia emphasized that on those numbers alone, it should be reasonable to allow Bacolod City to remain under GCQ.

"We have been fighting this willy virus for over a year by closely working with frontliners, public health experts and medical societies. We know the facts on the ground and the realistic capacity of our health system. Again, I vigorously request for reconsideration of our decision to escalate our risk classification to MECQ, and instead GCQ be kept in place until July 31," Leonardia said.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Bacolod City IATF, said they are hopeful that the regional and national IATF will reconsider their decision and to retain the city's quarantine status to GCQ.

He said they will wait for the official decision of the national IATF on July 15.