By Perla Lena/Philippine News Agency
ILOILO CITY — With a unanimous vote, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) placed Iloilo City under a state of calamity in a special session held on Friday.
The declaration was supported by a resolution from the Iloilo City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (ICDRRMC), which was passed on Wednesday.
Dr. Annabelle Tang, City Health Office Medical Officer IV, briefed the council that there were 1,119 cases of dengue in the metropolis with nine deaths from January to July 20 this year. This is an increase of 462.3 percent compared to the 199 cases with one death reported in 2018 during the same period.
Tang added that 67 barangays have clustered cases while Barangays Tacas in Jaro and North Baluarte in Molo are considered hot spots.
The city government said that upon the declaration of the state of calamity, the local government unit may use its PHP34-million quick response fund for equipment and PHP5-million trust fund from 2018 to hire personnel.
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said that city hall will purchase sprayers for misting, fogging machines and chemicals to be given to all 68 public schools, 180 barangays, volunteer groups, national government agencies and civic organizations that are willing to help in the anti-dengue drive.
He added the city government will also hire doctors, nurses and medical technologists to do laboratory testing.
Apart from the declaration of the state of calamity, the health and sanitation cluster of the CDRRMC also kicked off its community education focusing on dengue orientation and distribution of flyers and other information and education campaign materials in Barangay Balabago in Jaro district also this Friday.
The province of Iloilo also declared a state of calamity ahead of the city declaration.
The Department of Health (DOH) last week already declared a dengue epidemic in Panay and Guimaras islands and placed Negros Occidental in an alert status.
Tang, during her presentation to the city council, said that each household must clean their surroundings, adding they are pushing for the barangays to continue carrying out the “4S” strategy against dengue.
The “4S” stands for Search and destroy mosquito breeding places, Seek early consultation, Self-protection method, and Support fogging/spraying in hot spot areas where an increase in cases is registered for two consecutive weeks to prevent a possible outbreak.
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