The province and city of Iloilo will remain under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) and there will be no hard lockdown.

Jeck Conlu, the spokesperson for the city’s COVID-19 Team, said on Saturday, March 20, there was confusion after the announcement of Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. for the province ” to be on ECQ mode”.

“There is no ECQ or lockdown that will be implemented in the city. We are still under MGCQ (modified general community quarantine,” he said in an interview.

He added that Mayor Jerry P. Treñas only wanted the public to limit going out of their houses, except for essential transactions.

Meanwhile, the provincial government, through Balita Halin sa Kapitolyo, clarified that there is no truth to reports that Defensor “has placed the province of Iloilo on ECQ”.

“He simply wants us to be on ECQ mode,” the statement said.

In his press conference on Friday, the governor said that they are just preparing in case there is a surge in the number of infections.

However, the provincial government will require the negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for travelers to the province until March 31 as provided for in Executive Order 183-F placing the province under MGCQ until the end of this month.

This was agreed upon by political leaders of Western Visayas in a meeting with the regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) and Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III on Friday, March 19, for a uniform travel protocol.

The provincial disaster risk reduction and management council also passed a resolution requesting partner agencies to “implement strictly health protocols and quarantine procedures”.

These include protocols on public gathering, decongestion in public market, quarantine for asymptomatic cases, contact tracing and zoning containment strategy and the use of face masks/shield, washing of hands, and safe physical distancing.

Meanwhile, Conlu said the uniform protocol requiring a negative swab test for all city inbound travelers is now in effect until April 10.

However, with the current surge in cases of coronavirus disease 2019, gatherings are limited to only 50 percent of the venue capacity, and cockfighting has been suspended as per guidelines of the national IATF.Perla Lena/PNA