Treñas Appeals to Ilonggos: Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas made a lengthy message appealing to Ilonggos to follow minimum health protocols. This, after the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) is put on hold pending approval from the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF). It may be recalled that the local government requested MECQ following rise in COVID cases in the metro. Read more: Vaccine in Iloilo City (Live Updates)
Here is his message.
“The health and safety of the Ilonggos is our primary consideration amidst the surge in cases that we are experiencing these days. Placing our city under a stricter quarantine classification is mainly to protect the people and save lives. We have to slow down the infection, lower the infection rate and lessen the number of cases. This way, we can avoid expensive treatment and prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed. Ultimately, we help and protect our medical and non-medical frontliners who have been toiling through this pandemic for more than a year.
In our everyday meetings with the city’s COVID team, we are seeing an upward trend if we do not immediately control the rate of transmission soon. COVID bed capacities of hospitals are already full, so much that three City Hall employees died at the emergency room just trying to look for a hospital that would accommodate them.
While we await the approval of the IATF on our recommendation to shift from MGCQ to MECQ, I appeal to everyone to follow the minimum health protocols. We cannot overemphasize this enough. The only way to curb the spread of transmission, and hopefully lessen the number of deaths, is when we abide with the regulations for our own safety.
I know and understand that many are already tired of COVID. Some do not even believe it anymore. But the virus is real and still here, and we should not take it for granted. If we lower our guards, then we might find it so much difficult to control later on.
We need your vigilance. We appeal for strict compliance to health protocols. With everyone’s collective effort and cooperation, we can win over COVID-19. Bato Iloilo, masarangan ta gid ni!”
