By Noel Punzalan / Philippine News Agency
COTABATO CITY – Some 10,000 additional food packs have been sent to Wao, Lanao del Sur over the weekend due to a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases that have spread to 24 of 26 villages of the town, the Rapid Emergency Action for Disaster Incidence-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (READi-BARMM) said Monday on (Sept. 27).
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM local government minister and concurrent READi-BARMM head, said the additional relief packs were successively sent Saturday (Sept. 25) and Sunday (Sept. 26) upon the request of Wao Mayor Elvino B. Balicao Jr. as contained in a communique.
“We immediately acted on the mayor’s request since the Covid virus has spread to almost all the villages of the town,” Sinarimbo said, adding that they also sent medical provisions such as personal protective equipment, face masks, face shields, and alcohol for the town’s health workers.
Balicao, in his letter dated Sept. 22 to Sinarimbo, noted that 70% or 16 out of 26 villages remain under granular lockdown since Sept. 5 due to the Covid-19 surge.
The mayor said the virus surge is “alarming and very economically exhausting” especially since the villages’ lockdown is expected to last up to the end of this month or even longer.
On Sept. 6, the READi-BARMM sent an initial five truckloads of relief goods containing 10,000 food packs for Wao.
In a separate interview, Francis Garcia, Wao disaster management officer, said they have a recorded an average of one to two Covid-19 fatalities daily since the Covid-19 surge earlier this month.
Garcia added that from 16 villages, the virus has spread to eight more barangays in Wao. “Only two villages have remained [with] no record so far of Covid infection,” he said.
He said most of the Covid-19 fatalities are quickly buried at a separate graveyard in Barangay Katotongan of the town. “Only a few (fatalities) were cremated,” Garcia said.
He said Wao currently has 233 active Covid-19 cases. The Ministry of Health–BARMM is also set to send more help to Wao this week. (PNA) – bny
