CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 2 June) – The local government of Cagayan de Oro installed a makeshift gate made of used galvanized iron sheets to prevent residents from leaving their neighborhood where a fourth case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported on Sunday.
Dr. Lorraine Nery, Cagayan de Oro City Health Officer, said a 59-year-old woman from Zone 9 in Sitio Macanhan, Barangay Carmen, tested positive of COVID-19, the first reported case since the city shifted to Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) on Monday, June 1, but the fourth in Macanhan.
Nery said the latest case is a neighbor of the first COVID-19-positive in the area – a 62-year-old female who passed away on May 15.
The community has been on isolation since May 16 following the death of the first case.
On Monday (June 1), the city government sealed the community entrance with a makeshift gate made of used galvanized iron sheets to prevent residents from going out.
“The city government provides them with free food so long as they do not go out,” a nearby resident said.
Nery said the containment would have been lifted on June 5 but with the recent COVID-19 case, the quarantine will continue until June 15.
Nery said that aside from the new patient, the husband and daughter of the 62-year-old woman who died on May 15 also tested positive of COVID-19.
The two and the 59-year-old neighbor who tested positive have been held in isolation in an undisclosed medical facility in the city.
She said there are now five active COVID-19 cases to include the two students who arrived from Cebu City last May 19.
Of 30 COVID-19 cases in Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), Cagayan de Oro City posted the highest with 13 cases, including five deaths, as of May 31, according to the Department of Health’s Center for Health Development in Northern Mindanao.
Of Mindanao’s 27 provinces and 33 cities, only the cities of Davao and Zamboanga, which have the highest number of cases, have been classified as “medium-risk” and under General Community Quarantine. The rest, including Cagayan de Oro City, are “low-risk” and under MGCQ from June 1 to 15.
Under the Omnibus Guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the body that made the risk assessments and quarantine classifications, the classifications are “without prejudice to the declaration of localized ECQ in critical areas.” (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)