DAVAO City, the epicenter of the Covid-19 transmission in Davao Region, was downgraded down to general community quarantine (GCQ) with no restrictions, while three provinces in the region were placed on GCQ with heightened restrictions.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on Friday, October 1, placed Davao del Norte and Davao Occidental under GCQ with heightened restrictions from October 1 to 31, 2021.
Davao de Oro will also be under GCQ with heightened restrictions but only from October 1 to 15, 2021.
Davao City, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur are under GCQ with no restrictions for the entire month.
The current classifications did not adopt the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Region.
Rachel Joy Pasion, DOH-Davao Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit head, said during the DOH-Davao virtual presser on Tuesday, September 28, that they are recommending that Davao de Oro be placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and Davao City under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) due to the overwhelming healthcare utilization rate (HUR).
Pasion said Davao de Oro’s HUR is currently under critical risk, while Davao City, particularly the Southern Philippines Medical Center, is at high risk.
“As of the healthcare utilization, we consider it in a certain province, for Davao City, we recommend for MECQ, and for Davao de ORO -- ECQ since their healthcare utilization rate is critical risk, and that would depend on the number of Covid[19] beds that they had,” the DOH official said in a presser.
Davao de Oro Governor Jayvee Tyron said in a radio interview on Thursday, September 30, they appealed to the national IATF that the province would remain under GCQ with heightened restrictions.
Uy said the province will be stricter in enforcing the Covid-19 protocols.
"We expect 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.
Meanwhile, Pasion said the entire Davao Region, in general, is under moderate risk, except for Davao Oriental, based on average daily attack rate, and two-week growth rate parameters. Oriental is at low risk.
But she said the region’s HUR is still at high risk.