TACLOBAN CITY – Two more towns here in the region were added to the list of local government units that recorded cases of African Swine Fever (ASF).
These are the towns of Kananga in Leyte province and Sogod in Southern Leyte.
In Kananga town, positive ASF case was reported in sitio (sub-village) of Sagkahan, Barangay Poblacion.
At least 100 hogs were culled within the 500 meter radius from the area where the positive case as per directive of Mayor Matt Torres.
The local government, as part of the mitigation measure to prevent the further spread of ASF in the municipality, had imposed a two-week pork holiday in the municipality from July 14 to July 28.
Within the two weeks period, selling of pork and other pork based products are prohibited to be sold within the municipality.
Those who are allowed to sell frozen pork products are those who can present COMI and MIC and present that it is sourced-out from ASF free areas.
The LGU also instructed that all piggery farms in the municipality to implement and complete massive disinfection on their respective farms during the pork holiday.
The LGU also prohibited any inter-barangay movements of pigs.
In Sogod town, the positive case was monitored in Brgy. Maac.
Around 300 hogs within the 500 meter radius were depopulated as part of the protocol.
Sogod is the second town in Southern Leyte province that recorded ASF case after Silago town.
The Department of Agriculture has earlier reported of different areas in the region to have confirmed ASF cases which started in Abuyog, Leyte last January 14 of this year.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
2 more towns in the region reports ASF cases; affected areas depopulates 400 hogs
Jipapad town logs first COVID-19 case
In Eastern Samar
TACLOBAN CITY- The town of Jipapad in Eastern Samar recorded its first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The index case of the town involved a 31- year old woman who just accompanied her husband who is confined at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC).
Dr. Rona Mariblanca, municipal health officer, thus said, that the woman did not get the infection from the town.
The town’s first case was reported by the Department of Health (DOH) last Wednesday (July 14).
Mariblanca said that prior to the admission at the EVRMC, the husband of the COVID-19 patient was first confined at the Eastern Samar Provincial Hospital.
The health officer, however, did not disclose the ailment of the COVID-19 patient’s husband.
Mariblanca added that the COVID-19 patient is still at the EVRMC and is now conducting their contact tracing though they suspect that the woman could have acquired the infection.
Jipapad town, although already connected to the national road, is still considered as one of the geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).
The town, which is located in between two rivers, is constantly hit with flooding during typhoon and heavy rainfall that sometimes reaches to the second floor or roof of a one-storey house, which could be a factor why no Covid-19 cases are recoded in the municipality for a long time, according Dr. Marc Stephen Capungcol, regional epidemiology and surveillance unit Chief in a recent talk.
“They were implementing the same protocols that other local government units are implementing. There is nothing extraordinary. It just so happen that in the past few months the town is always hit by typhoons and people had problem in going back and forth,” Capungcol said.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Mayor Alfred revives ‘People’s Day’; provides financial assistance to 84 indigents in the city
TACLOBAN CITY- To efficiently assist families who are most in need, Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez revived ‘People’s Day’ at MASA (Mayor Alfred Social Action) of which 84 indigent residents have availed of the financial aid during the third set of payout on Wednesday, July 14.
This initiative, which started last 2012, is eyeing to reach more Taclobanons most deserving of financial help, especially in these trying times—when most are struggling to make ends meet.
With the assistance of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) and MASA Office, said beneficiaries each received medical assistance ranging from P2,000 to P3,000 and burial cash aid worth P5,000.
For those who would like to avail of the said service just comply with the needed requirements and visit MASA Office which is located on the second floor of the Tacloban City Supermarket. It is open to serve on weekdays and payouts will be done every Tuesday and Thursday.
(TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
Bishop calls for prayers, fasting against COVID-19
Region receives over 77,000 AstraZeneca vaccines
TACLOBAN CITY- Amid the rising cases of coronavirus disease(COVID-19) in Eastern Samar, Bishop Crispin Varquez declared July 20 as a day of prayer and fasting or ‘Adlaw hin Pag-ampo ngan Pagpuasa’ enjoining all the priests and the faithful in the diocese ‘to beg God to save us from this critical and grim situation.’
“I admonish all Catholics in our diocese to offer this day of prayer and fasting. Let us ask God for deliverance from this pandemic,” the prelate said on his letter issued on Wednesday (July 14).
“We trust God will surely hear the cries and supplications of His people, through the intercession of Our Lady, the patroness of the diocese,” Varquez added.
During this day, there will be a simultaneous celebrations of the Holy Hour and Holy Mass with the fasting from food will be an expression of solidarity for those who have lost their loved ones and those who continue to suffer due to COVID-19, Bishop Varquez said.
“May this day of prayer and fasting shed light to all those who are in the dark, and may it spark hope in those who are afraid,” he added.
At present, Eastern Samar has 2,784 total COVID-19 cases with 67 deaths.
Meantime, 77,500 doses of AstraZeneca arrived in the region in the region last Wednesday (July 14).
This is the biggest yet number of doses received by the region which is expected to help fast track the vaccination in the region, Jelyn Lopez Malibago, information officer of the regional office of the Department of Health (DOH), said.
Of these doses, 53,200 doses are intended for second dose of those who have received their first jabs last May, she added.
The remaining 24,300 will be administered for first and second dose for those considered in the priority groups, she added.
As of July 10, 243,617 individuals have already received their first dose across the region of which 92,370 of them completing the vaccination process.
The DOH also reported on Friday (July 16) of 233 fresh cases, pushing the region’s total COVID-19 cases to 33,414 since the start of the pandemic begun over a year ago.
Currently, the region has 1,561 active cases with 31,444 considered to have recovered from the dreaded ailment which already resulted in the death of 409 individuals. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
Our life-long war of peace and love
LET’S never forget this fact of life. For as long as we livein this world, and if we want to be consistent to our dignity as children of God, waging a kind of war of peace and love is a necessity. We cannot help it. We have enemies who mainly are our ownselves. We have enemies because they choose to be enemies of God, and therefore also of our own selves. Yes, we can be our own enemies.
Christ, who is supposed to be the Prince of Peace, warned us about this. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth,” he said. “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” (Mt 10,34) But we have to understand these words well.
He is actually telling us to wage precisely a war to bring about the real peace meant for us, a kind of war that is inspired by true love that comes from God himself. We cannot deny that with all the goodness God has done for his creatures, practically all of the latter have chosen to go against God. And among the enemies, we can be counted, together with the devil, as the primary ones.
But the war we will be waging here on earth will be a constructive war, not destructive. It is a war to win our way toward heaven. It is a war to make ourselves “another Christ,” a new man, stepping out of the old man that we all are due to sin. Any obstacle along the way, including those who are very close to us but who compete with God for our love, should be fought and rejected.
We have to remember that we always have to contend with powerful enemies in our spiritual life. The first one would be our ownselves, our own flesh that has been weakened by sin. There is such a thing as concupiscence, a certain attraction to evil that leads us to have a lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
Its urges can be strong and can make us feel that they are irresistible. We should not worry too much about them. As long as we beg always for God’s grace and we do our part of prayer, self-denial, recourse to the sacraments, and spiritual struggle, we can manage to take the wind out of these urges’ sails.
Then we have the world with many of its sinful, or at least, potentially dangerous allurements. There already are powerful structures of sin in the world, like pornography, religious indifference, secularism or a new paganism, and quite developed ideologies that are openly against God.
We need to know how to be discerning of the things of this world. More than that, we have to learn how to relate the things of this world to God, because unless we do that, there’s no other way but for us to be swallowed up by their ungodly dynamic.
Then there’s the devil, a very powerful spiritual enemy that can easily insinuate himself in our thoughts and desires. He is indeed very clever. He does his wiles often without us realizing it. But with God we can actually outsmart him. Let’s remember that while Christ told us to be innocent as doves, we should also be clever like serpents. We should be quick to reject those insinuations of the devil in our thoughts and intentions.