DIGOS City Mayor Josef Cagas wants the entire city to shift back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) following the reported first coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive case in Davao Occidental.
Davao Occidental Governor Claude Bautista said in a radio interview on May 5 that the patient is a 65-year-old woman from the municipality of Malita. However, this was clarified shortly by the Department of Health-Davao Region (DOH-Davao) as a suspected case.
Cagas said he will formally write to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to consider his request of reverting the city back to ECQ.
Digos City, along with other cities and municipalities of Davao del Sur, was automatically placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) effective May 1 under the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID)
Under GCQ, according to the IATF-EID, public transportation would resume at reduced capacity, some workers would be allowed to work, and some establishments would partially open but subject to minimum health standards.
However, Cagas said he is studying the move to go back to ECQ not only due to the reported Covid-19 case of Malita, but also due to the ongoing local transmission in other areas in Davao Region, especially Davao City.
“Napatung-an man gud ni atong siyudad. Agi-anan man gud ta. Wala man gud ta nasayud sa development sa ubang probinsya nga pwede muagi sa atong siyudad (A lot pass by the city and we are not sure of the health status of those passing here),” the mayor said during the One Davao for Covid-19 Virtual Presser on Wednesday, May 6.
In case DILG will not grant his request for an ECQ, Cagas said he would consider requesting for a border lockdown within the city for at least 15 days.
“Gusto nako naay adunay border lockdown diri sa atoang siyudad, kay dili ko kasiguro nga ang tanang tao na musulod sa atong borders kay free of Covid gyud (I would like a border lockdown in our city because I cannot assure that people coming to our city are Covid-19 free),” Cagas said.
Davao del Sur Governor Douglas Cagas, the mayor’s father, revealed in a TV interview that he will personally request to the national government to consider to shift back the entire province to ECQ following the first Covid-19 case in Davao Occidental for nearly two months since the first Covid-19 positive case was recorded in the entire region. (RGL with reports from Dominic Morales, AdDU intern)