DAVAO de Oro Governor Jayvee Tyron is appealing that the province would remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions amid the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao to place the province under a stricter quarantine status.
Rachel Joy Pasion, DOH-Davao Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit head, said during the DOH-Davao virtual presser on Tuesday, September 28, that their office is recommending that Davao de Oro be placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and Davao City under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) due to the high healthcare utilization rate (HUR).
But Uy said in a radio interview on Thursday, September 30, that they already filed a written appeal to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to extend the GCQ status in the province.
He said this was the recommendation of the Provincial Task Force on Covid-19 in the previous days.
The province was placed under GCQ with heightened restrictions until September 30.
Meanwhile, Uy said he observed an increase in Covid-19 cases in the province in the past weeks.
This had resulted in the province being classified under "high risk."
"We expect more stricter guidelines ahead kay kita nato na dunay mga pagtaas kaso sa tibuok probinsya (because we saw an uptick of cases in the entire province)," he said.
The governor said most of their local transmissions are recorded in offices.
Despite the heightened restriction, Uy said the tourism industry is still thriving despite having a limited operation capacity.
Uy, however, reminded his constituents to limit unnecessary travel or movement to curb the spread of the virus.
With the surge of cases, some hospitals in the province are almost overwhelmed.
He said they have augmented their Covid-19 isolation facilities in anticipation of the surge.
"So far, dili pa man gyud na ing-ana kapuno. Pero sa actual, tungod sa mga restrictions ug polisiya, naga-require ta og RT-PCR [reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction] una makapasulod sa hospital para sa atong biosecurity (it is not fully occupied. But actually, because of our restrictions and policies, we require RT-PCR test results before we will admit them for biosecurity purposes)," Uy said.
He said they allow home isolation on special cases but if possible, they need to be transferred to the isolation facilities.
As of September 29, the province has recorded a total of 6,283 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 991 active cases, 5,011 recoveries, and 281 deaths.