Zamboanga City health workers seek tighter quarantine amid COVID-19 surge, deaths

Health workers in Zamboanga City on Wednesday called on the national government to place the city under stricter COVID-19 quarantine restrictions amid the rise in COVID-19 cases and in recorded deaths due to the virus, an official of the local government unit said.

Zamboanga City COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Kenneth Beldua said that the city has logged 2,551 active COVID-19 infections and is averaging 150 new cases a day.  At least 10 to 12 deaths a day are also reported in the city, the task force said.

"The rise of COVID-19 cases here in Zamboanga is quite alarming. Our health workers, led by Zamboanga City Medical Society, Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines and Philippine College of Physicians, are requesting that our city be placed under stricter quarantine classification," Beldua said during the Laging Handa briefing.

"Based on the information relayed to us by Secretary [Carlito] Galvez, our request for the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) is being considered by the National Inter-Agency Task Force," he added. 

The city is presently under general community quarantine (GCQ).

Beldua surmised the slow-paced vaccination of residents could be contributing to the rise in COVID-19 infections.

"We see that the reason behind the increasing number of COVID-19 cases here is somehow the slow pace of our vaccination program because the supply is not enough," he said.

"We have purchased vaccines, but we are still waiting for delivery of the next batch," he added.

COVID-19 vaccine coverage in the city remains minimal with only 29% or 202,582 of the city's residents vaccinated with at least one dose. Of the said number, 146,749 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The task force official acknowledged that placing the city under tighter quarantine could have an impact on local businesses.

"We need to be more restrictive. The challenge here is that the local government will have to provide assistance under MECQ because MECQ will affect existing jobs," Beldua said.

Under the MECQ protocol, food businesses are only allowed to operate for take out or delivery services. Likewise, leisurely travel is not allowed.

Aside from the rising number of COVID-19 cases, Beldua said Zamboanga city is also facing shortage in oxygen tanks and COVID-19 hospital beds.

"We’re trying to address these issues by several measures that we will be undertaking in the coming days," he said.—LDF, GMA News