General Santos doctors seek stricter quarantine rules as cases surge in Soccsksargen

The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) in General Santos City has called on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to consider imposing stricter quarantine measures in the city as single-day COVID-19 cases surged in Soccsksargen.

The region registered the second-highest number of newly documented infections in Mindanao on Wednesday, September 8.

Soccsksargen accounted for 635 of the COVID-19 cases documented by the Department of Health (DOH). It was second to the Davao region that saw 890 new cases and was ahead of Northern Mindanao that logged 513 cases that day, DOH data showed.

Dr. Butch Peñamante, PMA-General Santos president, said the measures under the city’s current general community quarantine (GCQ) classification were not enough to curb COVID-19 cases.

The group also said it was best to assume that the more transmissible Delta and other COVID-19 variants have already started to spread in General Santos so that its officials would prepare to impose stringent quarantine measures.

General Santos City, considered the commerce and trade center of the Soccsksargen, has remained under a general community quarantine (GCQ).

Critical levels

Dr. Peñamante said he and his group were alarmed in that some 35 of every 100 people were testing positive for COVID-19 in the city since its cases started showing an uptrend two months ago.

General Santos Mayor Ronnel Rivera said the city’s COVID-19 daily attack and positivity rates have reached critical levels.

Rivera said that despite the quarantine measures, “padayong taas ang ihap sa mga residenteng na-igo sa coronavirus (the number of people catching the coronavirus has continued to rise).”

On Tuesday, September 7, General Santos registered 1,033 active cases of COVID-19. It logged over 100 new cases that day, the third time in five days.

Proactive measures needed

Peñamante said there was a failure to implement and observe minimum public health standards as a way to avoid infections.

During an emergency IATF meeting on Sunday, officials noted that the city registered a hospital occupancy rate of 90.7%.

The intensive care unit utilization rate of the city’s six major hospitals also reached 85.71%.

Four of the hospitals have already declared that they were already 100% full.

Dr. Ryan Aplicador, head of the city government-run Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital, said the hospital’s COVID-19 facility could no longer admit more patients.

The PMA’s proposal however worried the city’s business leaders and workers who were adversely impacted by stricter quarantine measures in the past months.

General Santos Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Elmer Catulpos said the government should take proactive measures but asked that it should carefully weigh the consequences and “strike a good balance in implementing health and safety measures without disrupting businesses and employment.”

“Our city does not have enough resources – it is even about to secure a loan. How can the local government support residents who will lose their livelihood and employment? Where will people run to for help in the event of a stricter quarantine status?” Catulpos asked.

The city government is seeking a P1.9-billion loan, part of which would be used to settle bills incurred during its COVID-19 response last year.

Mass graves ready in Davao City

In Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte announced on Monday, September 6, that the local government has prepared mass graves in anticipation of more COVID-19 deaths.

Duterte also said the city government has made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all its workers.

Davao City has so far logged 1,273 COVID-19 deaths since 2020. On Wednesday, September 8, the city saw eight deaths and 483 newly documented COVID-19 cases, the highest in the Davao region.

“We are ready with the mass graves,” Duterte said over the city hall-owned Davao City Disaster Radio.

She said the mass graves at the Tagakpan Public Cemetery in Tugbok District were for 960 cadavers – or six bodies for each of the 160 graves prepared by city hall.

But she said families who can arrange burials and cremations on their own would be allowed to.

“We have no problem with that,” she said.

The announcement came even as the state-run Southern Mindanao Medical Center (SPMC), the primary COVID-19 hospital in the city and the Davao region that its intensive care facility has been fully occupied since the first week of September.

The mayor said the city’s hospital care capacity has reached 65%.

As Davao moved to ramp up its mass vaccination rollout, the mayor gave all of city hall’s workers until December 31 to get fully vaccinated or face the prospects of losing their jobs.

“September to December is the last call,” she said, adding that city hall’s regular workers would be cited for insubordination if they fail to beat the deadline.

She said the papers of “job order” and contractual workers, and consultants would no longer be renewed by January 2022 unless they could show proof of full vaccination.