Tuguegarao: 2,135 Covid cases, 19 deaths; ECQ set

By Raymund Catindig

TUGUEGARAO CITY -- This city was placed under the strict enhanced community quarantine or ECQ by the local government March until April 8 as Covid-19 cases surged. 

At least 513 active cases were recorded as of March 30, the highest since last year.
    Tuguegarao was placed under ECQ from Jan. 20 to 30 when it posted a positivity rate of 25 per day.

It was reverted to the more relaxed general community quarantine from Feb. 4 to 10.

The city logged a total of 2,135 cases, with 19 fatalities.

Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said there is a high number of workplace-related infections in the city, which hosts several government offices.

Mayor Jefferson Soriano issued an executive order last week encouraging work from home scheme as a precautionary measure.

In Batanes, two COVID-19 cases were recorded March 30, bringing the total to nine.

In its social media advisory, the provincial government said the patients are co-passengers of the seventh case, who arrived on a Philippine Airlines flight at the Basco airport on March 20.

The eighth case is a resident of Basco, who is quarantined at a resort in Batanes.

The other patient arrived in Sabtang, where she was isolated.

The province has six active cases.

LGU scorecard

Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is looking at having a “scorecard” to measure how local government units are responding to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

In an interview with “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s OneNews/TV5, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the scorecards would be based on indicators to be monitored on a weekly basis.

Vergeire said certain indicators, such as surveillance system and contact tracing, are among those to be considered.

“In contact tracing, we are not looking only at the number (of people traced) but if they were able to trace them within 24 hours.  This is very critical,” she said.

Vergeire said another “critical indicator” is whether the contacts were isolated within 24 hours after they were identified. She cited a study which shows that it takes five to nine days before a contact person is put in isolation.