DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio strongly advised Dabawenyos to avoid visiting Barangay 23-C due to the increasing number of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the area for the past few days.
"Very severe ang situation nato sa 23-C because daghan kaayo ta og patients nga gikan sa 23-C (Barangay 23-C has a very severe situation due to the rising number of patients recorded in the area)," Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio on Friday afternoon, July 3, 2020.
Barangay 23-C is currently classified as one of the "very high-risk areas" in the city government's Covid-19 risk assessment map.
She said the barangay has been the subject of several meetings to identify the interventions the city government will be implementing to slow the spread of Covid-19 in the area.
While the City Government is still conducting further case management, Duterte-Carpio said visiting establishments and offices located within 23-C is also strongly discouraged.
Duterte-Carpio added the city will continue to impose localized lockdowns such house, compound, street, purok and even a barangay lockdown. While the city has been placed under a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), it has been allowed to implement localized community quarantine in some areas.
In the case of 23-C, the mayor said, "that is a possibility."
While she does not have the current figure during the interview, the mayor already pronounced that 23-C has the most Covid-19 cases in the entire city.
Duterte-Carpio said the city recently conducted a community testing in 23-C using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
"Bag-o lang ta nagpahigayon og testing dinha, RT-PCR na ni atong gipangbuhat sa ilaha, and daghan naga-positive dinha sa ilahang lugar (we recently conducted testing there, now using the RT-PCR, and many have tested positive in that area). So it's best to avoid that area," the mayor said.
According to data provided by the Department of Health-Davao Region as of July 2, 2020, 23-C has a total number of 86 Covid-19 cases, with 38 recoveries, 46 active cases, and two deaths. Meanwhile, 66 of the total cases in the barangay are asymptomatic.
The youngest patient from 23-C is a 25-day-old child who died on May 9, while the oldest is a 75-year-old female who recovered on June 13.
Notably, Davao Region’s first Covid-19 death, after 20 days of zero deaths from June 8 to 27, was also recorded in the barangay on June 28. The patient, labeled as DR-507, was a 52-year-old female, whose history of exposure is still being investigated. The patient expired after three days from admission.
Meanwhile, based on the city's latest Covid-19 risk assessment, the city has eight very high-risk barangays, namely 23-C, Agdao Proper, Bucana, Buhangin Proper, Cabantian, Leon Garcia, Ma-a and Matina Crossing.
Barangay 23-C has been tagged as a “very high-risk barangay” since the city introduced barangay classification on May 16.
According to the Davao City Operations Center for Covid-19, a formula is used in the Covid-19 risk assessment map currently posted on the city government’s website.
In very high-risk areas, among the factors used are the following: the population density is greater than 800 and active cases are greater than or equal to three cases; total confirmed cases is greater than or equal to 10 cases; attack rate per 1,000 population is greater than two; and the behavioral index, comprising the number of the enhanced community quarantine violations and a number of 911 calls responded that can influence going out or crowding of persons, is greater than 200 cases.
The city, meanwhile, clarified that the risk assessment map is only meant to guide the public and does not intend to discriminate nor prohibit people living from high-risk areas from going to low-risk areas.