President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to reclassify Cebu province from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions from August 1 to 15.
Also reclassified were the statuses of Laguna and Aklan, which has been finalized to MECQ from GCQ with heightened restrictions from August 1 to 15.
Apayao was placed from GCQ to MECQ from August 1 to 15.
Meanwhile, the IATF approved the shortening of detection to isolation/quarantine intervals to less than five days.
These include:
- the conduct of active case finding in all areas, prioritizing those with clustering;
- the tracing of close contacts of suspect, probable, and confirmed cases within 24 hours of detection of a case;
- the immediate isolation /quarantine and testing of cases and close contacts;
- the use of rapid antigen tests for confirmation of suspect/probable case and close contacts;
- RT-PCR testing for those who turned negative on rapid antigen testing;
- identification of areas with case increases or clustering by the local government units (LGUs) and regional epidemiological surveillance units and their immediate submission of samples for sequencing;
- ensuring that workplaces and establishments conduct daily health and exposure screening, report identified cases and close contacts to the LGU, and coordinate for investigation and response;
- and considering incentives in workplaces to encourage reporting and adherence to isolation/quarantine.
Also approved by the IATF are:
- the implementation of giving priority to facility-based isolation and quarantine to prevent household transmission;
- making readily available and accessible health care capacities and systems in preparation for case spikes;
- ramping up of vaccination among Priority Groups A2 and A3 populations with parallel efforts of vaccinating the A4 population, if resources are adequate;
- strict enforcement of border control protocols at all ports of entry;
- continuous assessment of the COVID-19 situation at all levels;
- and the dissemination of information on the variants of concern and expected actions to be undertaken by individuals, establishments, and implementers. ### (IATF) – jlo
