Kalinga’s capital city of Tabuk will start a four-day aggressive community to test 5,000 individuals starting Thursday, February 18, as it shifts to a general community quarantine after three weeks of enhanced CQ.
This after the Cordillera Regional Task Force on Covid-19 (coronavirus disease) has ordered the City Health Office to undertake the testing as cases of the disease remain on the rise, the city public information office reported.
According to the PIO – Tabuk, CHO head Dr. Henrietta will lead the conduct of the testing in the barangays with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, namely, Bulanao Centro, (1,500 tests), Bulanao Norte (800 tests), Bado Dangwa (500 tests), Casigayan (400 tests), Dagupan Centro (400 tests), Dagupan Weste (400 tests), Malin-awa (300 tests), Balawag (300 tests), Casigayan (300 tests), and New Tanglag (300 tests).
The tests will be done at no cost to the residents and will prioritize government employees including teachers, barangay officials, tanods, and barangay health workers; uniformed personnel; senior citizens; persons with co-morbidities; tricycle and public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers; vendors and grocery store workers; and close contacts of COVID-19 positive individuals, added the PIO report.
Bagayao said that other interested persons are also welcome to avail of the testing as it is “better to exceed the target” in order to catch all carriers of the virus.
“The swab samples will be processed in the lab in La Union which has been designated solely for the aggressive community testing in Kalinga,” Dr. Bagayao said in the PIO report.
Similar activities will also be conducted in other high-risk areas such as Pasil and Lubuagan.
The past six days saw significant increase in cases. On February 10, the CHO reported 52 cases, dipped to four on February 11, 48 on February 12, nine on February 13, 28 on February 14 and 14 on February 15.
Tabuk has a total of 881 cases alone of which 324 are active and 11 who have died of Covid-related diseases.
Meanwhile, mayor Darwin Estranero has downgraded the capital city from ECQ to GCQ On Monday, February 15, in compliance with the declaration of President Rodrigo Duterte to place the region under GCQ for the whole month of February.
He said that the city inter-agency task force for Covid-19 has not sought for the extension of the ECQ which it earlier requested to stop the increase of cases in the city. The CIATF has earlier requested that Tabuk be placed under ECQ from January 25 to February 7, then asked for an extension until February 14.
