The Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) headed by Gov. Marcos Manotoc has been relentlessly and swiftly acting on the surge of COVID-19 cases across the province through strategies in line with the Action Plan of the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).
Gov. Marcos Manotoc highlighted the “prevent, detect, isolate, and trace” efforts of PGIN in his most recent press briefing.
Recently, the Philippine National Police Region 1 deployed 40 new officers “to help with the implementation of safety protocols and monitoring of the movement of people,” Gov. Marcos Manotoc said.
To prevent the further spread of the virus, he enjoined Ilocos Norte citizens to start reporting incidents of breach of protocols to barangay hotlines or official social media accounts of local government units (LGUs).
In terms of “detection,” Gov. Marcos Manotoc requested from the Department of Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, Testing Czar Vince B. Dizon, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) more COVID-19 testing kits. In addition, the opening of multiple field hospitals in certain areas is being highly considered.
Moreover, 200 isolation tents from OCD have been distributed to hard-hit localities to increase their isolation capacities. The Department of Education has also approved Gov. Marcos Manotoc’s request to allow the use of schools as isolation and vaccination centers. Some Barangay Isolation Units were also reopened to accommodate qurantiners, thus avoiding home isolation to reduce the risk of virus transmission.
Furthermore, a few days ago, PGIN hired 17 new contact tracers while the Ilocos Norte Police Provincial Office reassigned 24 of their officers to focus on contact tracing efforts.
In terms of vaccination efforts, PGIN has been “rolling out much more heavily,” distributing vaccines to the different cities and towns, and allowing them to lead the implementation of the immunization program. Notably, physicians from the Ilocos Norte Medical Society and medical professionals of the MMMH&MC and Mariano Marcos State University have been reinforcing the efforts of PGIN.
As COVID-19 cases surge and concerns over delta variant rise in Ilocos Norte, IATF-MEID has approved PGIN’s request to revert the province’s quarantine status to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine, from August 1 to 15, 2021.
(Source: Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte)