TACLOBAN CITY- The provinces of Samar Island were rocked by earthquakes on Sunday night though the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) announced of no damages or aftershocks due to these jolts.
The first earthquake to hit the Samar Island was in Northern Samar province with the epicenter recorded in Allen town at about 7:24 pm.
Based on the monitoring of Phivolcs, the tremor had a magnitude of 2.5 and was of tectonic in origin with a depth of focus at about 065 kilometers.
Another quake was felt in Samar Island, this time in Samar province with the town of Basey as its epicenter.
It had a magnitude of 2.3 and of tectonic in origin with a depth focus of 160 kms.
The last tremor recorded in the island was in Eastern Samar.
The 10:53 pm was traced to have an epicenter in San Julian town with a magnitude of 4.1 and a depth focus of 033 kms.
The quake was felt in the town at Intensity IV; Intensity III in Sulat town, also in Eastern Samar; Intensity II in Catbalogan City and in the towns of Jiabong, both in Samar, and Taft in Eastern Samar; and Intensity I in San Jose de Buan town, Samar.
Phivolcs said that they did not monitor any damages or aftershocks due to the tremors.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
Tremors rock Samar Island
81K waitlisted families in E. Visayas to get SAP aid
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Friday said a total of 81,003 additional family beneficiaries in Eastern Visayas would receive cash assistance under the social amelioration program (SAP) of the national government.
In a press statement, DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Marie Angela Gopalan said these came from the 129 local government units (LGUs) in the region that submitted a list of qualified poor families but did not receive the grant during the first tranche.
A total of 38,420 families were listed from Leyte, 16,393 in Samar, 14,652 in Northern Samar, 5,310 in Eastern Samar, 4,663 in Southern Leyte, and 1,565 in Biliran.
As of July 29, the regional office here has already released P12,145,000, serving a total of 2,429 families.
Each recipient received P5,000 cash, Gopalan said.
“We expect more beneficiaries to receive the emergency subsidy in the next days, especially that the DSWD continues to conduct direct cash payout and we are also preparing for the implementation of the digital payment scheme,” she added.
Under Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, financial support for two months will be granted to indigent families affected by the movement restrictions meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
However, Eastern Visayas is no longer included in the second tranche of the emergency subsidy due to downgraded community quarantine status.
Gopalan said they released a total of P2,752,283,000 during the first tranche of SAP, serving 550,480 families from the region’s 143 LGUs.
Meanwhile, Eastern Visayas has confirmed a total of 936 Covid-19 cases, including 670 recoveries and three deaths from Leyte, Biliran, and Samar, according to the Department of Health monitoring report.
(GERICO SABALZA/PNA)
Mayor confirms existence of local community transmission of COVID-19 in Palo
TACLOBAN CITY- The mayor of Palo has confirmed the existence of a local community transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) in her town.
As this developed, the Department of Health (DOH) said that the region has now 982 COVID-19 cases.
According to Mayor Frances Ann Petilla, among its three new cases, one of them, a 29-year old man, has no travel history or engaged with any locally stranded individuals (LSIs) or returning overseas workers.
But she said that the man could have get the infected from his 61-year old father who was earlier confirmed to have the dreaded virus.
Petilla said that they immediately conducted a contact tracing to ensure that the virus would not further spread.
“(The) patient has no travel history and no contact with any locally stranded individuals, returning overseas Filipino or returning resident. With this, I am confirming that Palo has now a local community transmission of COVID-19,” Petilla said on her Facebook post.
Thus, the town mayor asked her people to strictly observe all the health protocols.
“Always wear your mask and practice social distancing. Please avoid going out if it’s not important. We are following and implementing protocols and health measures that will prevent further spread of coronavirus,” Petilla said.
The regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) has yet to confirm on this claim of Petilla.
With three new cases, Palo has now 32 cases with 19 recoveries.
Meantime, the DOH said that to include the three cases of Palo, nine new cases were added to the region’s total COVID- 19 cases.
Aside from Palo, also posting their new COVID-19 cases were Baybay City with two cases and the towns of Palompon, Alangalang, Barugo and Abuyog with one each.
Except for one in Palo town, all the new cases of the region involved locally stranded individuals. (JOEY A. GABIETA, LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
Tacloban city gov’t receives quarantine facility
TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) turn over to the city government of Tacloban a quarantine facility for returning city residents.
The facility is located at the Salvacion Heights, a housing project of the National Housing Authority.
OCD Regional Director Lord Byron Torrecarion disclosed that the said facility is one of the 10 regional quarantine and isolation facilities funded by their office.
“With this we can ensure that our returning residents will be captured in a quarantine facility and limit home isolation which triggers the increase of Covid-19 cases like what happened in Cebu,” Torrecarion said.
City administrator Aldrin Quebec, representing Mayor Alfred Romualdez, accepted the facility in behalf of the city government.
More than P27.4 million budget was allocated in the creation of said facility.
Torrecarion added that the facility in Salvation will function only as quarantine facility and will not house individuals confirmed to have infected of COVID-19(coronavirus disease 2019).
More than 290 individuals can be accommodated in the quarantine facility with 50 units are available and ready for use.
Aside from returning residents, quarters for health workers and other frontliners are also allocated in the facility
Each units has its own water and electricity supply, bed, table and chairs, cabinet and electric fan. There is also a provision of air-conditioning units but this will be installed at tents that are used by health workers and other frontliners.
To secure the area, personnel from the Tacloban City Police Office will be assigned in the facility.
The basic necessities and food of those who will be quarantine in the facility will be provided by the city government, city administrator Quebec said.
“We can now say that we are prepared if there is a spike of COVID-19 patients. This facility turned over by the DPWH and OCD will help us manage the situation once it get worse,” Quebec said.
At present, Tacloban has now almost 500 quarantine and isolation units, excluding the hotels which the city government had made an agreement.
About 50 units of these will be allocated for C OVID-19 positive patients.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Gov. Petilla places Leyte under MGCQ from August 1 to 15
(CITY HEALTH OFFICE)
By: ROEL T. AMAZONA
TACLOBAN CITY- Maintaining the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in Leyte will help its economic recovery.
Thus said Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla who wants the reopening of the local economy ravaged by the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).
“We don’t want to burden our people from doing their livelihood,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte in his live video message last Friday (July 31), has placed Leyte and the rest of the provinces in the region under the MGCQ status.
Gov. Petilla said that although Leyte has the most number of COVID-19 cases in the region, its recovery rate is also high as most of the infected individuals by the virus are asymptomatic.
“Most of them had already recovered even those who arrived in the early week of July,” he said.
The governor has issued Executive Order 08-01-2020 last Friday placing the entire Leyte province under MGCQ from August 1 to August 15.
Under the MGCQ, movements and travels of all residents in the province are unrestricted. However, health and sanitary protocols must be observed especially in crowded and public places.
The entry of all persons originating outside the province either by land, air, or sea is prohibited except for returning overseas Filipino workers, locally stranded individuals, and Balik Probinsya, Balik Pag-asa (BP2) program beneficiaries, must undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period in their respective local government units upon their arrival.
Also exempted from travel ban are authorized persons outside residence (APOR) or those workers in essential business establishments and industries, health and emergency front-liners, uniformed personnel, those traveling for medical or humanitarian reasons, skeleton workers, accredited construction workers, delivery personnel of cargo vehicles, among others.
Public utility vehicles can now resume operations, provided they comply with the directive of the Department of Transportation disinfection and other safety measures.
The new directive will allow business establishments to resume operations provided they equip their office or store disinfectant or sanitizer ready for use of its clientele.