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CITY OF DAVAO – Mayor Sara Duterte clarified that there is no policy in the city of Davao that allows home quarantine for COVID-19 patients.
Duterte, on Friday, reacted to the statement made by the Chief of Implementation of the National Task Force, Carlito Gálvez, based on the mistaken impression that home quarantine is allowed in the city.
Gálvez, who is also the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process, was in the city of Davao last Wednesday to discuss with the local COVID-19 Working Group the situation and possible interventions.
“If we allow home quarantine, community transmission will continue. If we have community transmission, we will have difficulties to stop COVID, ”said Gálvez.
The mayor, who was also present at the meeting, admitted that she made a mistake by not immediately correcting Gálvez assuming that local officials from the Department of Health would.
“I was hoping DOH would correct that narrative, so I kept quiet,” Duterte said.
The local government explained that this narrative would create the wrong impression that COVID-19 patients are not being isolated at the facility by healthcare workers.
“Positive patients are transported to different facilities while their houses are locked up,” Duterte said.
Housemates are monitored and will be evaluated, especially if they develop symptoms, the mayor added.
Duterte, however, said that there were cases in which patients were not immediately transferred to isolation facilities due to limitations and coordination problems.
“Home quarantine has never been a policy of the city of Davao and the whole city knows it,” Duterte emphasized.
He added that residents were actually complaining that health workers would go to their homes and pick them up to isolate them at designated facilities.
Davao City returned to GCQ from Friday November 20 to November 30.
The IATF decision to revert Davao City to GCQ from MGCQ was based on Gálvez’s recommendation after consultation with the local task force.
From September 30 to November 19, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city of Davao soared from 1,953 to 5,520 people, or an increase of 183%.
Meanwhile, the death rate also soared by 214% from 78 deaths on September 30 to 245 deaths on Thursday, November 19.
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