By Fernan Angeles
BULACAN province’s fate remains hanging as to whether their current community quarantine protocol should be downgraded to a relaxed category as Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Saturday cited the urgency to track down over 20,000 “probable” individuals who had contact with others who were tested positive for COVID-19.
Taking cue from the number of active coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the province – a total of 2,018 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 788 recoveries and 58 fatalities, Duque said that they still have to trace 20,000 persons for testing.
Officials of the Inter-Agency Task Force and the National Task Force on COVID-19 earlier visited Bulacan amid a sustained spike of COVID-19 cases in the province. Bulacan is classified as critical area as its COVID-19 beds and isolation rooms are hair-thin shy of its full capacity.
“Ang inyong quarantine facility, bed capacity medyo malaki ang kulang kaya nandito naman kami para magbigay ng suhestyon na ang DepEd ay papayag naman na gamitin ang kanilang public elementary school buildings to augment your need for more isolation and quarantine facilities,” Duque said.
In anticipation of more patients, the government is seriously considering the construction of Bulacan Community Mega Quarantine Facility which will have a 100-bed capacity.
In a statement, Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando said that they would maintain and impose strict measures regardless of an imminent downgrade of their community quarantine classification on Monday.
“Naka-pabor pa rin po kami sa lockdown ng mga zoning areas. Ano po, ‘yan po ang pinaka-malala sa lahat at [kapag] hindi natin maghihigpit aba’y dadami na naman po ito. Nung nag MECQ nakabawas po kami,” Fernando said.