Calbayog City placed under selective hard lockdown
By: Roel T. Amazona
TACLOBAN CITY-At least 84 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Eastern Visayas were reported on Friday, bringing its total cases to 5,195.
The new cases were from Leyte provinces with 36; Samar,20; Northern Samar, seven; and Southern Leyte, one.
Meantime, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region has identified 18 barangays wherein there are clustering of COVID-19 cases which means there are more than three infected persons in these areas.
Of these villages, nine are from Calbayog City, Samar province; four in Catbalogan City, also in Samar; and one each from Tacloban city and the towns of Barugo, Palo, Kananga, all in Leyte; and one from Liloan, Southern Leyte.
In Calbayog City, Mayor Ronald Aquino has placed 16 barangays in the city under ‘hard lockdown’ for 14 days which started Friday at 6 pm.
Placed under hard lockdown by the city government were the villages of Aguit-itan, Bagacay, Balud, Capoocan, Carmen, Central, Dagum, East Awang, Hamorawon, Matobato, Nijaga, Obrero, Payahan, San Policarpo, West Awang, and Rawis.
Aquino said that the city government will provide food pack assistance to the residents who will be affected by the lockdown.
Aquino added that although that it is a tough decision to place the city under selective hard lockdown, this is the only solution that they can think of to decrease their COVID-19 cases attributed to people who are not following health protocols like staying at home.
Business establishments in the city are prohibited to operate except for those providing essential goods like pharmacy and drug store, grocery, water refilling station, bakeshop, and other food needs.
Public transportation is also prohibited to operate to limit the mobility of the affected residents and spread of the virus.
According to Councilor Christopher Corsiga, who is the ground commander of the city’s inter-agency task force, said that these villages have high cases of COVID-19 reason why these areas are to be placed under hard lockdown.
Corsiga, who is a councilor, added that by placing these villages under hard lockdown for 14 days, they hope that COVID-19 cases on these areas would go down.
“The hard lockdown will only for 14 days as this is one way to decrease our COVID-19 cases. We need your cooperation, especially the barangay officials. If there is a need for them to put up a checkpoint, they can do it. We want to lessen the mobility of our people (in these areas) as viral transmission will be limited,” Corsiga said in a radio interview.
Residents of these villages would be barred from leaving their homes unless for essential and work purposes.
Currently, Calbayog has 336 COVID-19 cases with two deaths.
