DAVAO CITY, Nov. 20 (PIA)- Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte clarified the City’s policy on home quarantine after hearing the Nov. 18 meeting between the CODE (Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic) and members of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Diseases at Camp Catitipan.
During her radio talk show at the City-owned Davao City Disaster Radio, the Mayor noticed that the Department of Health let the conversation about home quarantine flowed without correcting the narrative.
IATF chair Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. during the meeting said the surge of cases was a result of the many COVID positive patients being home quarantined, which the Mayor refuted as it was not the policy of the city to keep the positive individuals in their homes.
“During the meeting with the CODE team, with the RIATF and other sectors, DOH-XI gipasagdan nila ang (they left the) conversation was leading to, that there is a home quarantine policy in the City of Davao. I was there, there were many of our media personnel were there listening, maybe naa koy kakulangan (I had lapses) because I didn’t correct the notion that the policy is home quarantine in Davao City, I was expecting the DOH would correct that narrative, that direction in the conversation but they never did, so I kept silent, But the home quarantine has never been a policy in Davao City,” the Mayor said.
The Mayor said that many Dabawenyos knew that home quarantine has never been a policy as the city has many Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities.
“Klarohon ko lang na (I want to make it clear) that home quarantine was never the direction and the policy of the City Government with regards to COVID-19 positive cases,” the Mayor said.
With regards to F1 or close contacts of positive patients but are undetermined if they are positive as they would wait for Day 5 to 7 from contact. The DOH guidelines does not specifically indicate home quarantine or facility quarantine.
Mayor Sara says they isolated the positive and transported them to the facility and would lockdown the house of that positive patient.
The F1 close contacts are left in the houses and are given schedules within Day 5 to 7 from last day of exposure before they are given the tests based on DOH policy.
Mayor Sara said she was wishing that the DOH-XI would correct the notion but instead chose to kept quiet during the meeting.
“It was never a policy and you know it because there are many who complained that they taken from their homes and transported to the SPMC and the TTMF,” the Mayor said. (PIA/RG Alama)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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