Nagiel Bañacia, head of Lapu-Lapu City’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — The Lapu-Lapu City Government was never surprised with the extension of its modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status after August 15.
Nagiel Bañacia, head of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO), said they are already bracing for the worst.
“Nag-expect gyud ko nga ma-extend no, I was even expecting the worst,” Bañacia said.
Bañacia was even worried because the virus has already infected the younger generations.
He revealed that the youngest child who tested positive for for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is only 1-year-old.
“Ang gipangtakdan mga bata na, naa man gani 1 year-old. Unya kasagaran ang mga nangasakit, bata unya up to 49 years old. Mao ni kasagaran nga nangasakit, kasagarang nangamatay,” he added.
He said that most of their new infections are individuals who always go out of their residences.
“I suspect kay ang mga bata nagsige man ug lakaw-lakaw sa community, mao ni sila ang nagdala ug virus sa ilang panimalay,” he said.
Bañacia, however, said that 99.9% of the city’s infected individuals are unvaccinated.
He also urged Oponganons that if they manifest symptoms of the virus, such as fever, colds, and cough, to have themselves checked and undergo swab testing.
“Ang city health gi-doble ug gi-triple pa ang testing ug contact tracing,” Bañacia said, adding that they are not afraid if their cases for COVID-19 will increase because this will reflect the real situation of the virus in the city.
For the Delta variant, Bañacia said that they already contact traced all of the 23 cases of the variant in the city, wherein all of them have already recovered from the virus.
Bañacia has also noticed the increase of COVID-19 cases in barangays with subdivisions, especially barangay Basak that has 29 subdivisions.
Currently, Barangay Basak ranks first among the barangays in the city with the most active COVID-19 cases with 242.
Based on the monitoring of the Department of Health (DOH)-7, as of August 12, 2021, Lapu-Lapu City has 1,742 active cases. The city has also recorded 138 new cases. /rcg