Malacañang on Friday announced that Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte’s home city, will be placed anew under general community quarantine (GCQ), after it saw a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Davao City will be under GCQ until Nov. 30.
In a statement, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said a One Hospital Command Center would be established in the city to “ensure an efficient referral system” as private hospitals were directed to increase their ward bed occupancy by 20 to 30 percent.
The government will also address the shortage of nurses in health facilities in the region and provide additional high-oxygen cannulae, Favipiravir (Avigan), Remdesivir and medical equipment, among others.
Roque said Melquiades Feliciano, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force against Covid-19 for the cities of Bacolod and Cebu, has been given the Davao City assignment as well. Feliciano will spearhead the Coordinated Operations to Defeat the Epidemic (CODE) teams to be deployed in Davao City.
Some accommodation establishments in the city will be designated as quarantine facilities for health workers as well as the isolation of positive Covid-19 cases, Roque added.
Davao City has recorded 5,541 Covid-19 cases, comprising nearly 70 percent of the total cases in the Davao Region. John Ezekiel J. Hirro