Residents in the entire province of Ilocos Norte are strongly urged to be extra careful as more Delta variant cases have been confirmed in the province.
In a public statement on Thursday evening, Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc relayed a report from the Department of Health (DOH) that at least seven new Delta cases were detected in seven towns of the province.
“This is what we’ve been fearing and anticipating all along. This isn’t the same virus we’ve dealt with in the past. Even nationally, regionally, globally, cases are on the rise,” said Manotoc as he assured the Provincial Health Task Force will continue to exhaust all possible solutions to contain the further spread of the virus.
In response to the medical front-liners demand for a “time out” to give them time to recover from the increasing number of patients being rushed to public and private hospitals due to respiratory diseases, the governor has requested the Inter-Agency Task Force to declare the entire province under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as a “policy shift” is now being imposed by the national government.
This came following the announcement of Malacañang on Friday that the quarantine classification of Ilocos Norte will remain under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until the end of this month.
Also placed under MECQ are Apayao, Bulacan, Cavite, Lucena City and Rizal in Region 4-A for Luzon.
As of August 12, the province has logged a total of 3,923 active cases out of the total 11,109 infections since the start of pandemic last year, with 7,030 recoveries and 156 recorded deaths.
The surge of cases started from July to August as the Delta variant has been detected in the province with 12 confirmed cases so far.
Source: Philippines News Agency
