Thursday, September 2, 2021

AgSur tightens health protocols as COVID-19 cases surge

By Jennifer P. Gaitano

BUTUAN CITY – With the high number of cases recorded in the province of Agusan del Sur, the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force led by Governor Santiago Cane, Jr., has tightened the implementation and monitoring of the health protocols to prevent the transmission of the dreadful coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“On August 25, I called for a provincial IATF meeting, and after reviewing the data, we decided to elevate the quarantine classification from General Community Quarantine (GCQ) to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) because of the increase in cases,” said Governor Cane.

The official added that in the month of August, the cases in Agusan del Sur reached almost 1,000 based on RT-PCR results; its quarantine and isolation areas, private and government hospitals were being filled up and have zero available COVID-19 beds.

“With this, I issued an executive order placing Agusan del Sur under MECQ which took effect on August 27 until September 11, 2021 with specific orders for the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and all mayors and barangay officials to implement the provisions of Executive Order No. 21,” Cane added.

The official also recalled that last June, the national IATF placed Agusan del Sur under MECQ, and in July it was placed under GCQ, which somehow made people relaxed while in August, that was when the daily cases started to rise. 

“If the cases go down, we might revert back to GCQ or continue with MECQ, or worse, ECQ if we cannot stop the increase in cases despite the MECQ protocols we are implementing. The national IATF announced that for August we should be under GCQ but locally we decided otherwise because we can not put the province under GCQ because of the rising cases,” said Cane. 

Cane also expressed his appreciation to the Department of Health (DOH). “The DOH has been doing a very good job to protect our people in the country. I really appreciate their efforts in Caraga region and I hope they stay focused in protecting the people in the communities,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the vaccination roll-out, Cane revealed that as of August 27, the province had a total of 58,856 people fully vaccinated; in the A1 group, 98.24% have been fully vaccinated, with a targeted population of 14,716 while 13,248 or 90% have had the first dose.

“For the A2 group, 49,009 is the target population and 18,356 or 37.45% have had their first dose and 21,651 or 44.18% have had their second dose. For the A3 group, the target population is at 43,384 and those who’ve had their first dose is 19, 037or 43.88%; fully vaccinated is at 37,617 or 86.71%. For the A4 group, we have a targeted population of 220,000 and 6,541 or 2.97% had their first dose already and only 5 are fully vaccinated," he said.

"We have no specific program to incentivize people to get vaccinated because your health is very important to have a healthy community; if we incentivize this, it’s like only the government is interested in their good health; the interest for good health should emanate from each and every individual,” added Cane. (JPG/PIA-Agusan del Sur)