Move meant to contain spread of virus

TACLOBAN CITY- The mayor of San Isidro in Northern Samar has placed under lockdown a village where the town’s first cases of COVID-19 resides.
Mayor Ferdinand Avila said that he placed Barangay Mabuhay under lockdown to ensure that the virus would not spread.
The town of San Isidro logged its first COVID-19 cases involving six returning locally stranded individuals on May 28.
“I have already placed under lockdown the entire barangay of Mabuhay to ensure that the virus would not spread and for purposes of contact tracing. But they are all asymptomatic,” Avila said.
He said that the six were part of the 19 construction workers who returned to San Isidro on May 28 and who were stranded in Metro Manila after the metropolis was placed under lockdown last March.
The swab results of these returning construction workers were released on Wednesday (June 9).
Mayor Avila said that the local government unit will be providing food assistance to the more than 800 residents of Mabuhay, located just outside the town center.
He admitted that the people of San Isidro, with a population of more than 27,000 spread on its 14 barangays, went into panic when they learned of COVID-19 cases on their town.
But the town mayor assured them that the concerned individuals could not infect others as they are now in isolation facility.
“I have also made a request before the Regional and Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force to place our town under general community quarantine and enhanced community quarantine for Mabuhay,” the town mayor said.
The six men from San Isidro were among the 19 people reported by the Department of Health in the region to have been infected with the virus.
DOH said that the 19 confirmed cases was the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported on a single day.
Aside from the six men from San Isidro, the new cases were from Baybay City with six; five in Ormoc City; and one each from Pastrana and Calubian, both in Leyte.
Of these areas, San Isidro, Pastrana and Calubian posted their first cases of COVID-19 while Baybay City has now eight and Ormoc has six.
All of these cases involved individuals who returned to their respective places under the ‘Balik Probinsiya’ program of the national government. (ROEL T. AMAZONA with reports from JOEY A. GABIETA)

TACLOBAN CITY-Police arrested a barangay councilor during a buy-bust operation here in the city Saturday (June 6).
The suspect was identified as Arthur Dave Degalla, 38, married and kagawad of Barangay 51-A, this city.
Purchased from the suspect was one heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet of substance believed to be shabu.
Confiscated from his possession were two sachets of shabu, one P500 bill used as buy-bust money, 31 pieces of P500 bills as bogus money, one mobile phone, and cash amounting to P3,120.
The suspect will face charges for violation of sections 5 and 11 of Republic Act 9165, otherwise known as Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
(RONALD O. REYES)

ORMOC CITY-A midday fire on Sunday at the town’s poblacion in Capoocan, Leyte was caused by an unattended cooking, said SFO2 Leo Hernandez, fire investigator of the town’s fire bureau.
The blaze gutted down four houses whose dwellers were mostly elderlies.
Hernandez said that the fire started at the house of Eutequia Makabenta, 88, who fell asleep while cooking for lunch. She lives alone.
The fire investigator said in a telephone interview that Makabenta was saved by her niece who was also her neighbor, when she noticed a fire starting in the kitchen particularly a cooking using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Citing the account of Makabenta’s niece, the investigator continued “the elderly who was already awake that time seemed shocked while watching the growing fire so the niece immediately grabbed her aunt out of the house.”
Also left homeless were Makabenta’s sister, Clara Paz, 80, and other neighbors Timotea Nicole, 60 and Nelia Aborque, 52. All of them failed to save any belongings since the fire had already engulfed their houses that were made of light materials.
Five fire trucks including responders from the neighboring towns of Carigara, Barugo and Jaro worked together to put out the blaze.
The incident started at 12:40 pm and was put out at 2 pm with total damage cost at P1.7 million.
(ELVIE ROMAN ROA)