By Rhoda Grace Saron and Carmelito Q. Francisco
THE city government has put on granular lockdown 822 houses, a building and a compound because of high COVID-19 cases.
This developed as Mayor Sara Duterte on Monday said the city government has started allowing home isolation to decongest hospitals and the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
“These (COVID-19 cases that are allowed for home isolation) are for properly assessed, medically and socially, sa ilahang panimalay as set by the criteria of the Department of Health (DOH) sa home isolation,” Duterte said.
The mayor said that, based on an expert projection, the surge in the number of cases will continue within the next two months.
“This is really a surge, so we are reminding everyone to be extra careful. ‘When you go out make sure that you continue to wear your mask wherever you are. Do not be complacent even when you are at home because there are so many asymptomatic and mild cases,” she said.
Last week, Dr. Rachel Joy Pasion, DOH Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head, suspected that the increase in the daily number of daily cases was caused by Omicron variant as last month, five cases were discovered, two of them local infection.
Duterte said aside home isolation program, private hospitals have also started accepting COVID-19 cases.
On Monday, the DOH regional office reported that of the 1,141 new cases in the region, 841 were from the city. In the previous four days, the number of new cases went up beyond 1,000.
The city government has also tagged as critical 74 barangays out of the 182 barangays, while three are considered high risk and 18 are high risk because of their proximity to the critical and high risk barangays.
Among the factors used in identifying barangays are their population, number of active cases, their two week growth rate in cases and their average daily attack rate, or the numbers of at risk individuals who are infected with the virus.
Aside from home isolation, Dr. Michelle Schlosser, City COVID-19 spokesperson, last week said that the city government has also allowed the shortening of the quarantine period to five days for fully vaccinated individuals who were infected but asymptomatic.
Those infected must be honest if they were stil experiencing symptoms related to infection as some of them were not truthful, Schlosser said.
“Dili sila muistorya sa amoa nga naa silay sintomas therefore, kung malala ang sintomas diha pa mag istorya basin dili na namo mo matabang,” she added.
