Zamboanga City seeks extension of ECQ

Published April 28, 2020, 6:41 PM

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Zamboanga City Task Force on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVI9-19) disease has sought the extension the implementation of the enhance community quarantine (ECQ) to May 15 from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emergency and Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

This was disclosed by Tack Force Chairperson and Zamboanga City Mayor Isabelle Climaco as she admitted that the city was not yet ready to lift the ECQ as scheduled on April 30.

She explained that the city has recorded nine confirmed COVI9-19 cases with two fatalities, four recoveries, one who is still confined at a Manila hospital and two are at the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC), the designated COVID-19 hospital in this city and in Zamboanga peninsula.

Climaco also cited that the number of COVID-19 suspects was at 326 with 53 fatalities, 117 with negative results, and 119 with pending results.

It was on this basis that Climaco said the city would only be able to contain the spread of COVID-19 if ECQ was to be extended until May 15.

But local residents expressed concern over the plan, and appealed to the city government to lift the ECQ on April 30, and just adopt the general community quarantine (GCQ) instead.

They claimed they were already running out of food due to the implementation of the ECQ.

Under GCQ, the local government here may allow the opening of non-leisure shops in malls, and resume priority and essential construction projects, including the partial operations of public transportation systems.

The city government is also mandated to allow industries to resume operations, like in agriculture, fishery, forestry, food manufacturing, packaging, food retail, supermarket, restaurants (for takeout and delivery), hospitals, logistics, water, water, energy, internet, telecommunications, and media.

A 50-percent onsite work and 50-percent work-from-home scheme may also be imposed under GCQ in industries engaged in financial services, BPO, other non-leisure wholesale, retail trade and other non-leisure services.

Meanwhile, in Zamboanga del Sur, an 11-month-old baby died while awaiting the result of the COVID-19 test.

The infant was the eigh patient who died at the Margosatubig Regional Hospital in Zamboanga del Sur.

The infant died of pediatric community acquired pneumonia, severe acute gastroenteritis.

SOURCE: https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/04/28/zamboanga-city-seeks-extension-of-ecq/