Friday, June 18, 2021

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Bansalan tightens quarantine status to GCQ

Posted: 18 Jun 2021 06:34 AM PDT

AFTER Digos City, the municipality of Bansalan is the latest local government in Davao del Sur to be placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) from June 17 until June 30.

According to Executive Order (EO) 29 issued by Bansalan Mayor Quirina Sarte, the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) approved the request of the municipality to place the entire town under GCQ due to the steady growth of Covid-19 cases in the area.

"The current cases have been constantly rising every day, causing alarm and concern to the locality and its constituents," Sarte said in the EO.

The mayor ordered all government offices and private establishments to adopt the flexible, skeletal work schedule and work-from-home schemes, depending on the need of the institution and establishment.

"Business establishments who are non-compliant with the said rule may be dealt with accordingly with existing laws and ordinances and may be subject for revocation of permit and licenses," the EO reads.

For public transportation, a maximum 50 percent capacity rule for loading commuters and point-to-point schemes are advised for all public utility vehicles (PUV), buses and vans shall be observed.

Dine-in services for food establishments are strictly prohibited.

A 24-hour liquor ban was also imposed and curfew starts at 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Masses and other religious activities and celebrations are allowed up to 30-percent capacity.

Social gatherings are limited to 25 persons only, and for religious activities, only 30 percent are allowed.

Contact and non-contact sports are also prohibited.

As of June 18, Bansalan has a total of 296 confirmed Covid-19 cases, wherein 60 are active cases, and nine deaths.

Digos City recently reverted to GCQ due to the "exponential" rise of Covid-19 cases in the area from June 14 to June 27, 2021.

Meanwhile, the rest of Davao del Sur is currently under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) until June 30.

According to the June 17 data of the Department of Health, the entire province has a total of 2,540 confirmed cases, wherein 670 are active cases, 1,790 recoveries, and 80 deaths.

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Resumption of international flights to Davao still uncertain

Posted: 18 Jun 2021 06:33 AM PDT

THE resumption of international flights at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao International Airport) this year remains uncertain due to the unavailability of flights, the Davao City Tourism Office (CTOO) said.

CTOO head Generose Tecson said in a virtual presser that some airline companies have not yet committed to the resumption for outbound international flights to and from the city.

"It's on the part of the airline companies. They don't have their schedules," Tecson said during the AFP-PNP Press Corps virtual presser.

Initially, SilkAir said they were going to resume their international flights in the city in October this year. However, due to the current Covid-19 situation not only in the city but in some countries that are currently implementing lockdowns, like Singapore, this might not push through.

Tecson also cited the limitation of the number of passengers the airlines can cater.

This despite the recent issuance of Executive Order 26 on May 6, 2021, allowing the resumption of all kinds of flights, such as scheduled international flights, unscheduled domestic commercial flights (chartered), and other general aviation flights to and from Davao City.

The EO states the removal of all restrictions on flight operations to allow for more economic activities in relation to civil aviation.

The official admitted that the City Government is gearing toward the resumption of international flights.

"Siyempre magiging magandang opportunity po 'yan for the hotels, kasi alam natin na 10 days ang quarantine (It will be a great opportunity for the hotels because we all know they will undergo 10 days quarantine)," said Tecson, who also serves as the Airport Monitoring head.

According to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) guidelines, international passengers will a undergo 10-day quarantine at the city's facility and will be swabbed on the seventh day before they will be allowed to travel toward their destination and finish their four-day home quarantine.

Recently, various hotels were identified as quarantine facilities for international passengers after these were inspected by the Department of Health, Bureau of Quarantine, and the Department of Tourism.

On Wednesday afternoon, June 16, a total of 99 repatriated Filipino seafarers from Fiji arrived at the Davao International Airport.

Tecson said the repatriation served as a dry run for future international flights in the city.

She said the recent arrival of the repatriated OFWs served as a welcome development for the hotel industry in the city.

"Ready naman tayo (We are all ready) because we have all the [processes] in place at airports, and even with our hotels. This is a welcome development because at least 'yung (our) economic activity nila medyo gagana na (will gradually recover)," the official said.

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PGC-Mindanao to start detecting Covid-19 for Mindanao soon

Posted: 18 Jun 2021 06:32 AM PDT

CONFIRMED Covid-19 specimens from Mindanao will no longer be shipped for confirmatory test for the new variant, as the Philippine Genome Center (PGC)-Mindanao is targeting to start conducting genomic sequencing in Davao Region this June.

PGC-Mindanao Director Dr. Lyre Anni Murao said in a virtual presser on Friday, June 18, that the upcoming operation of the sequencing hub is in response to recent detection of the new Covid-19 variants in some parts of Mindanao and with the current surge of cases in the entire island, especially in Davao City.

Murao said this will decongest the specimens being processed at the main office of PGC in Metro Manila, although she said some specimens will still be sent to Manila.

She said PGC-Mindanao will be catering samples from the entire Mindanao to provide a "wider scope of sequencing" of Covid-19 specimens in the island.

Murao said genomic sequencing allows the identification of the Sars-CoV-2 variant and monitors how it changes over time into new variants. It also aims to study how these changes affect the characteristics of the virus and use this information to better understand how it might impact health.

"We will be able to identify the different variants that are currently circulating in our communities. This will give us an idea of what kind of Sars-Cov-2 viruses do we have right now," she said during the One Davao on Covid-19 virtual presser.

"Are these like the old original viruses or are they now more transmissible? That means they can spread easily, or do they cause severe diseases, or since vaccination is now rolling out, will we soon have viruses that can escape vaccines," she added.

While there is the contact tracing to curb the spread of the virus and give an idea to the Covid-19 situation, she said there are gaps in it because the information given may not be accurate or some may not be true.

"The beauty of sequencing is that we can also do a similar kind of analysis, but sequences don't lie. The information that we can get from sequences is accurate," Murao said.

Unlike in the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, which can detect the virus, the genomic sequencing can provide in depth knowledge of the virus' structure.

For the entire project, she said they target to cater all specimens coming from the six regions in Mindanao. She said they already partnered with three labs in the island who submitted their samples.

"Mas maganda na makita ang buong story ng (It would be best to see the whole side of) Mindanao because we know recently that the entire Mindanao experienced this surge," Murao said.

According to the recent report from the Department of Health (DOH), Mindanao has now outpaced the National Capital Region (NCR) in the recent Covid-19 infection.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that Mindanao has contributed 25 percent of new cases in the country in the past few days.

In a previous report, Davao City Health Office acting head Dr. Ashley Lopez said that while this has yet to be confirmed, he suspected that the emergence of the new variants might be one of the factors for the sudden surge of cases in the city.

On the part of PGC-Mindanao, Murao said they do not have any available data to prove this claim but she said there are many factors to consider in analyzing the surge of a certain locality.

Regardless of the new variant, she said breaking the chain of transmission would still depend upon the compliance of the minimum health protocols, and limiting the mobility of the transmission.

The genomic sequencing project is in partnership with Accessible Genomics, which funded the materials needed for genomic sequencing. The project is also in partnership with Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and University of Glasgow.

Murao said the confirmatory reports of the sequencing will be relayed to the RITM and will be relayed to DOH and its regional offices.

PGC-Mindanao was launched in 2019, and was established by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through seed funding to initiate the center.

But Murao said this will be the last year the center will be sourcing its funding from DOST and it is scouting into more sustainable funding in the future.

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Monkayo barangay declares calamity over diarrhea outbreak

Posted: 18 Jun 2021 06:31 AM PDT

BARANGAY Pasian in Monkayo, Davao de Oro declared a state of calamity on Thursday, June 17, 2021, over an outbreak of diarrhea in the area.

Through Barangay Resolution 31 series of 2021, the village officials stated that nine of their 15 puroks were affected by the outbreak.

According to the Municipal Information Office of Monkayo, the barangay has registered 184 cases of diarrhea and 5 deaths as of June 18.

Joseph Anthony Crizaldo, Monkayo municipal information officer, said symptoms of the diarrhea like vomiting and more-frequent bowel movement were first recorded last June 11.

The Environment Sanitation Report from the Provincial Health Office (PHO) revealed that the source of the water system in the area was not disinfected since its installation on 2002, has no fence, and is located near a rubber plantation.

Dr. Antonio Ybiernas Jr, provincial health officer of Davao de Oro, said that there is an ongoing investigation as of today together with a team from the Department of Health in Davao Region (DOH) and PHO.

The PHO report also stated that they have not discounted the fact the cases might be related to coronavirus diseases 2019 (Covid-19) since diarrhea is one of the criteria of its symptoms.

Mayor Ramil Gentugaya has also ordered its medical teams for immediate response in the area, while the Provincial Government, through the PHO, has provided a drum of chlorine granules for the water system. (PIA-Davao de Oro)

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