Isabela town seeks to revert to GCQ

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, Philippines – The town of Alicia in Isabela should be placed under general community quarantine, according to its mayor.

Mayor Joel Alejandro said the number of COVID-19 cases in their town surged, with two deaths recorded in the past week.

Alejandro said 22 of the new cases are stall owners or vendors at the public market.

He said a spike in cases was also recorded in 11 barangays, which were placed under calibrated lockdown.

Alicia had 38 active cases as of Monday.

In Western Visayas, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or IATF clarified that there was no declaration of a lockdown.

In a joint statement, Juan Jovian Ingeniero, Western Visayas IATF chairman and Jose Roberto Nuñez, chairman of the regional COVID-19 task force, said they only adopted the provisions of IATF Resolution 104, which states that only essential travelers from Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal shall be allowed to visit the region from March 23 to April 4.

The clarification was made after Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas demanded an explanation from the local IATF for imposing travel restrictions, saying these are  equivalent to a lockdown.

Meanwhile, Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali confirmed in a post on Facebook that he contracted the virus, citing the result of his swab test, which was released on Monday.

Umali said he is on home quarantine.

Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane, who had earlier said he was also infected, is in an isolation facility.

5th case in Batanes

As this developed, Batanes recorded its fifth COVID-19 case on Monday.

The Batanes provincial government said a 26-year-old returning resident of Basco, who arrived on a Philippine Airlines flight on March 20, tested positive for the virus.

The patient is in a quarantine facility at a resort on the island.

All the co-passengers of the fourth COVID-19 case in Batanes, who arrived in the province last week, had tested negative for the virus.

The patient remains in stable condition in an isolation facility.

In Cagayan and Isabela, around 20 journalists are on quarantine after their colleagues tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. – Gilbert Bayoran, Ric Sapnu