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GenSan lukewarm on calls for revert to ECQ —Magalong


GenSan lukewarm on calls for revert to ECQ —Magalong

General Santos City officials do not see a need to place the LGU back to enhanced community quarantine status, despite calls by several nurses and doctors who have contracted COVID-19, contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong said on Friday.

"Very challenging po 'yung situation natin sa GenSan, pero napag-usapan naman po kahapon (Thursday) that they will not declare a status of ECQ. Instead they will maintain their current status," Magalong said at the Palace briefing.

However, Magalong said the General Santos City local government will be enhancing their capabilities in fighting COVID-19, including increasing their testing capacity, training of contact tracing teams to improve monitoring efficiency ratio, and the establishment of isolation facilities.

"Amazingly the local government is on top of the situation. They are really working hard to manage 'yung situation," he said, adding that local authorities are managing it "very well."

"We're hoping that in the next few days we will be able to craft their strategy and hopefully in the next few weeks makikita na ho natin ang downtrend in the number of cases," Magalong said.

On the other hand, Testing czar Vince Dizon said, "Ang message lang ng national taskforce sa lahat ng mga LGU sa buong bansa ay kapag nakaka-experience ng pagtaas ng kaso ay huwag po tayong mababahala."

He advised LGUs to not immediately worry about the rising number of cases in their regions.

"Kung gagawin at susundin natin ang strategy ng prevent, detect, isolate, treat and integrate, sigurado po tayo na kakayanin natin mapababa 'yan. 'Yan po ang naging mensahe ng national taskforce kahapon (Thursday) sa City of Gen San," Dizon said.

According to him, the strategy had been effective in Cebu, which previously had a high number of COVID-19 cases, as well as in some cities in NCR, and in Calabarzon.

Medical workers in General Santos City have called on the local government to impose a two-week enhanced community quarantine, as the Philippine Medical Association in GenSan said two doctors, three nurses, and seven other medical staff have so far contracted COVID-19. —LBG, GMA News

 

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