The Inter-Agency Task Force Against Covid-19 (IATF) kept Puerto Princesa under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) from May 15 to May 31 despite the city being flagged as a special area of concern by an influential research group.
On May 12, the OCTA Research Team tagged Puerto Princesa as one of the cities with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases outside of the National Capital Region (NCR), with a 35-percent one-week growth to 60 new cases daily.
In a televised public briefing, Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucilo Bayron reported that the city recorded more than 400 active cases as of Friday, May 14.
According to the Department of Health’s Covid-19 tracker, Puerto Princesa has recorded a total of 1,556 cases as of May 13.
“Actually, bago in-announce ng OCTA Research na kami ay special area of concern, yung regional IATF, dati pa kaming kino-consider na area of concern, noong April pa lang,” Bayron said.
Bayron admitted that they could not pinpoint the cause of the Covid-19 case surge in Puerto Princesa, but noticed that it started at about April 5.
Bayron also said he would not appeal to the IATF to place the city under the stricter Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine.
“Okay na kami sa GCQ kasi mula pa noong May 1, GCQ na talaga kami,” he said.
Bayron said the biggest problem faced by Puerto Princesa was the limited health sector workforce, as many health workers had tested positive for Covid-19 and were under quarantine.
In addition to Puerto Princesa, Kalinga, Abra as well as NCR-Plus were placed under GCQ in the new quarantine classification, with NCR-Plus subjected to “heightened restrictions.” Isabell Andrea Pine