TACLOBAN CITY- A 90-year old woman from a town in Southern Leyte province is among the latest persons from the region to have acquired the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
On Thursday night, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region reported that its COVID-19 cases is now at 6,151 with the additional 96 new cases.
The new cases were reported in Northern Samar with 37 cases; Samar,33; Leyte,19; and Southern Leyte,5.
The 90-year old woman who was tested positive of the virus is from Macrohon, Southern Leyte.
The elderly was said to have acquired the infection from her grandson whom she lived with.
Mayor Alan Jose Aroy said that the woman appears to be asymptomatic though is suffering from her hypertension. She and her grandson are now at the town isolation facility and contact tracing is now being undertaken among identified close contacts of the two.
Macrohon, at present, has 33 confirmed COVID-19 cases of which 22 remains active.
As this developed, the entire province of Southern Leyte is now placed under general community quarantine(GCQ) which took effect last October 20 and is to end on November 3.
Meantime, its provincial capital city of Maasin was also placed to a stricter quarantine status of modified enhance community quarantine (MECQ).
The move was in response to a surge of COVID-19 cases of the province.
The province has 463 COVID-19 cases of which 164 are from Maasin City.
In Northern Samar, which is also seeing spike of COVID-19 cases, Governor Edwin Ongchuan has also placed the entire province under MECQ for 15 days that started on Oct.20 and to end on Nov.3.
The province has 384 confirmed COVID-19 cases with two deaths.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
90- year old woman from Southern Leyte among region’s new COVID-19 patients; appears to be asymptomatic
Mayor Romualdez presides meeting on COVID-19 update in the city
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
TACLOBAN CITY- The Local Health Board of this city convened on Thursday, October 22, chaired by Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez, to discuss the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation of the city and possible strategies to continue the delivery and uptake of immunization services amid the pandemic.
With the nine additional cases logged last night, acting City Health Officer Dr. Gloria Fabrigas reported Thursday morning that Tacloban City has a total of 878 confirmed cases with 63 active cases and 15 deaths.
Of the total number of COVID-19 cases presented during the third quarter meeting, it was revealed that Sagkahan District has the most number of infections with 232, followed by San Jose District with 145; Abucay, 136, CHO Main with 126, V&G with 124; Diit, 64 and New Kawayan, 42 cases.
With that, Mayor Romualdez reiterated the call to follow the minimum health standards such as the wearing of face mask and face shield and practicing physical distancing and flatten the curve by staying at home, going out only when necessary, and avoiding social gathering, as this has been found out to be one of the causes of the spread and rise of COVID-19 in the past few months.
Meantime, highlighted also was the discussion on how to strategize the conduct of catch-up immunization drives amongst children 0-23 months per district to hit the 95 percent (5684) target this year.
The meeting, held at the City Mayor’s Boardroom, was attended by Executive Assistant Christian De Dios and representatives from the Tacloban City Rescue Unit and Department of Health.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
North Samar now under GCQ amid spike of COVID-19 cases
BY: ROEL T. AMAZONA
TACLOBAN CITY – The entire province of Northern Samar is now under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) after the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (RIATF8) and Regional Task Force on COVID-19 (RTF8) approved the request of Governor Edwin Ongchuan to place the province on a higher quarantine status.
The two councils issued Joint Resolution No. 33 on October 19, granting the request that will last for 15 days starting October 20.
The body also approved the request of Gov. Ongchuan to temporarily suspend the arrival of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning residents for 14 days.
Under the joint resolution, except for the 23 villages in the municipal proper of Catarman, the capital town of the province that was placed under Modified ECQ, all other villages in the town and other municipalities in Northern Samar are placed under GCQ.
“As of October 18, 2020 The Department of Health Center for Health and Development VIII reported that there 343 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province of Northern Samar in 21 affected municipalities, with the capital town of Catarman recording the most number at 130 confirmed COVID-19 cases. In addition, the province has the second highest number of active COVID-19 cases in the region with 164 cases, 61 of which are in Catarman,” the resolution reads.
As of October 20, Northern Samar has a total of 384 COVID-19 cases where 299 are active cases, while 153 had already recovered, and two recorded deaths.Only two towns of the 24 municipalities of the province are still COVID-19 free or have no cases since the region first recorded COVID-19 in March.
These are the island towns of San Vicente and San Antonio.
Of the 22 towns with confirmed cases, Catarman has the most cases with 135, followed by Laoang with 97.
Other towns with double digit cases of COVID-19 are Gamay (18), Palapag (17), Mondragon (16), Allen (15), Lavezares (13), and San Roque (12).
Town with single digit cases of COVID-19 are San Isidro (9), San Jose (8), Capul (7), Victoria (6), Mapanas, Silvino Lobos, and Lope de Vega (4), Bobon (3), and Catubig, Lapinig, and Las Navas (2).
Majority of the COVID-19 cases Catarman are from 23 villages that are placed under MECQ, while most of 97 cases in Laoang are from the sub-provincial jail.
Leyte students have to walk for hours just to catch mobile signal
TACLOBAN CITY – As blended method of learning is now being implemented in the country in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, students either will take the modular method or online class.
But while modular learning has been adopted among schools in the region, students have still to go online in some instances.
In Barangay Mahagnao, about 20 kilometers away from the town proper of Burauen, Leyte, secondary students need to walk for about 30 minutes to its nearby village of Lanawan, which is part of MacArthur town, just to have mobile phone signal when they need to ask some clarifications from their teacher.
Although there is a spot in the village which could catch a signal, but this only work to old model of mobile phones and students have to wait until midnight to receive a signal.
This is why at least twice a week, students would hike up to the village of Lanawan which is about three to four kilometers away if they need some clarification on their lessons.
Aside from the cellphone signal, there is also one particular spot in Lanawan near the primary school campus where they can access mobile data and research their topic in the internet and access the messenger where they can view the discussion in their class group chat.
The students would sometime stay there for two to three hours depending on how quick their teachers are in answering their messages. Before they go to the village, questions that they wanted to ask to their teachers are all written in a piece of paper.
Friza Joy Agrava, 15, a Grade 10 student of Burauen National High School (BNHS), said that they are lucky if they will get an immediate reply from their teachers, they can go home early, but if not, they need to wait, even for hours.
Friza Joy, together with her cousins Jaymaima Banzale, Bethzaida Mae Paza, both 15, Pearly Ann Agrava, 16, and Jaira Crystal Paza, 17, with other high school students in the village would leave their house at around 100 pm to Lanawan, and would go home before 3:00 pm, or sometimes before 5:00 pm.
It is a tiring walk to Lanawan according to her because of its uphill slope but with her cousins and friends joining her, travel become easy.
“Our classmates are lucky that they live in places with a good signal. But for us, obtaining signal is a big sacrifice,” said Pearly Ann, who also studies at the BHNS.
The cousins added that although, the new mode of learning had saved their family P600 a month on fare for each of them, they still prefer the face-to-face education because it allows them to understand their lessons easily and they have actual conversation and interaction with their teachers when they wanted to make some clarification on their lessons that they do not understand.
“We have to deal with the modular now because of COVID-19. This is the only way that we can continue our studies and to make sure that we are safe from being infected by it,” Jaymaima said who studies at Atty. Roque A. Marcos Memorial School (ARAMMS) in La Paz town. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Leyte Landings celeb will go virtual
By: ROEL T. AMAZONA
TACLOBAN CITY-All is now set for today’s 76th Leyte Gulf Landings anniversary.
But unlike in previous anniversaries, this year’s commemorative event will not only be low-key but will go virtual amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The annual event is split into two parts, the ‘live’ event for the flag raising and wreath laying ceremonies while the commemorative program will be a virtual event.
The decision to make the celebration largely in a virtual setup is due to the restrictions imposed under the quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic like mass gathering.
Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, who will spearhead the historic occasion, will deliver his speech at the MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park in Barangay Candahug, Palo town, where the program is being held.
The virtual commemorative program will follow the usual sequence of the yearly event that starts with the invocation, then welcome remarks of the Palo Mayor Frances Ann Petilla.
This will be followed by the tribute to the veterans and lighting of the peace torch. A virtual solidarity greetings from Veterans Federation of the Philippines president Retired Justice Manuel Pamaran and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office Administrator (PVAO) Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina will follow.
Australian Ambassador Steven James Robinsons, New Zealand Defense Attaché Group Captain Nick McMillan, Deputy Head of Mission for the embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Alastair Totty, Naval Attaché of the United State of America Embassy Captain noel Corpus, and Japan Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Minister Yasushi Yamamoto are to deliver their message through online.
President Rodrigo Duterte is also expected to ‘attend’ this year’s commemorative program as he will deliver an online message.
Despite the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Gov. Petilla said that the province should continue celebrating the 76th Leyte Gulf Landing Commemoration to honor the bravery of the World War II veterans.
“We have to commemorate this big event that happened 76 years ago. We have to remember the patriotism, the sacrifices, and the heroism of the veterans. We still have living veterans, we have to honor them because of their bravery we learned how to face the crisis brought by corona virus and we ought to pray for them,” Petilla said during a virtual press conference organized by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).
Petilla added that the activities and program of the 76th Leyte Gulf Landing will be seen on social media for everyone to have access especially the youth so they will be aware and understand the vital role of the veterans played in shaping the future of the country.
“They sacrificed their lives to give us good life. Let’s make sure that we sustain that. That we have a good country and a good life in honor of our veterans. We hope that we can continuously instill awareness in our youth,”he said.
Petilla added that the province will also revisit the proposal to the Department of Education to include the significance of Leyte Gulf Landings in the school curriculum.
At present, the region has 92 surviving World War II veterans, were 58 are in Leyte; 21 in Samar Island, and 12 are from Biliran.
The oldest of these veterans is a 104-year old from Javier town.
The surviving veterans are provided assistance by the government with P20,000 monthly compensation aside from wheel chairs, canes, and disability pension of P1,700 per month, according to Paul Harry Lobrigo of Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO).
Leyte province annually commemorates the Leyte Gulf Landings which celebrates the arrival and return of the Allied Forces to the Philippines lead by General Douglas McArthur to end World War II and the occupation of Japanese Forces in the country.
The Leyte Gulf battle is considered the largest naval battle in recorded history.
His arrival signaled the fulfillment of Gen. MacArthur’s famous words, “I shall return,” after going to Australia to muster support from the Allied forces in the quest to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese occupation.