ZAMBOANGA CITY – Mayor Beng Climaco has placed the whole city under a stricter community quarantine status due to the continuing increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Zamboanga.
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| Some of the violators of health protocols spotted on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 in the village of Guiwan in Zamboanga City. (Zamboanga Post) |
Addressing the public late Wednesday, Climaco said starting Saturday, Zamboanga will be under the Modified Enhance Community Quarantine status in an effort to address the health crisis. She said residents are advised to use their quarantine pass and shall only be allowed to go out and buy essential needs. Curfew hours remain the same from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Climaco said she will issue a new executive order and guidelines for residents to strictly follow after the national government approved the recommendation of health authorities and local task force Covid-19 to place Zamboanga under stricter quarantine measures.
The mayor has repeatedly appealed in public for residents to follow the health protocols after health authorities noticed a drastic increase in Covid-19 cases from only about 3 dozen in March to more than 2,000 this month. Many residents were complacent and did not follow the health protocols such as the wearing of face masks and face shields, and even ignored physical distancing in public places. Police continue to apprehend daily hundreds of health protocols violators despite the rising cases of Covid-19.
Just last month, Climaco said the national government may place Zamboanga under a stricter quarantine measure unless residents follow health protocols religiously. She said if the Covid-19 situation becomes uncontrollable due to the continued violations of the health protocols and complacency of residents, the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) could impose severe measures just as it did last year at the start of the pandemic.
“This is the reason why the City Government is intensifying enforcement of preventive measures such as wearing of face masks and face shields by residents, practicing hand hygiene and physical distancing, to include restricting mobility of people and even temporary closure of beaches and resorts to curb transmission of Covid-19,” she said.
“Otherwise, if the (Covid-19) cases become unmanageable then the national government might declare ECQ and we do not want to be under ECQ because of its effects on the livelihood of people,” she added, referring to the strictest Enhanced Community Quarantine status.
The local health situation quickly changed after the IATF-MEID relaxed its travel protocols across the country and allowed people to go from one place to another without medical certificates and RT-PCR tests. Hospitals here have put up additional wards to address the growing number of patients with the deadly respiratory disease. The Zamboanga City Medical Center has already converted other wards to accommodate Covid-19 patients with nurses working at least 12 hours per shift and no day’s off. Other hospitals also added Covid wards or are full.
Climaco stressed that in confronting the pandemic, the government has to balance medical science, facts and opportunity for people to be healed. She reiterated that people have to fully cooperate and support the government in the fight against Covid-19 to prevent further increase in the number of infections here. She said the local government is making available the needed resources to assist people who are affected by temporary granular lockdowns in the barangays should Covid-19 cases spread rapidly. (Zamboanga Post)
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