The Paranaque City government placed 10 streets in Barangay Baclaran under a three-day ‘calibrated lockdown’ beginning today (Thursday) at 6 a.m. up to Saturday of 6 a.m. due the high number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease.
The streets include Bagong Sikat, Bagong Lipunan, Bagong Pag-asa, Bagong Ilog, E. Rodriguez, Bagong Buhay, Bagong Silang, Dimasalang Extension, Mabuhay, and 12 de Junio.
Mayor Edwin Olivarez said those streets were initially recommended by barangay health officers and selected by the city's health department based on the results of community-based testing conducted by the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit.
The area is well known as the site of the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, also known as the Redemptorist Church or Baclaran Church, dedicated to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. A mosque is also located in the area.
Baclaran, with a population of about 29, 000, also has a number of illegal and legal tiangges, which sell everything from clothes and electronics to home decors and traditional medicine, which occupied Coast Road and Taft Avenue.
The COVID-19 incident in the said areas was described as “apparently alarming and per our contact tracing, persons who were positive of the virus are occupyinpopulated and household proximities,” according to Olivarez.
Baclaran is among the three barangays that were placed last week “under immediate concern” by the city government, including San Dionisio and San Antonio after COVID-19 cases in the said areas surged over the weekend.
The city health office reported that 41 coronavirus cases on May 2. It recorded the highest of 49 cases last May 15 in Baclaran alone.
As of Wednesday, the city has a total number of 649 individuals affected by the virus and 42 deaths while 355 patients recovered.
Olivarez said that instead of an earlier plan of ‘strict community quarantine’, they have focused on what particular streets, sitios, a block and/or a compound inside the barangay’s clustering of COVID-19.
“Immediate intervention for mass testing, isolation and quarantine is of urgent need to avert the possibility of increasing into a widespread magnitude in Barangay Baclaran,” the mayor said,
Olivarez also that during the lockdown, the city government would intensify targeted testing and monitoring starting Thursday at 6 a.m. until midnight of Saturday in the said areas. A total disinfection and flushing will also be conducted the whole day of Friday.
The mayor said the quarantine pass issued by the barangay will be suspended during the lockdown while banks, stores, gasoline stations, money remittance centers, markets would be closed. Unauthorized vehicles would not be allowed to exit or enter the area.
Olivarez said that those who tested negative for the virus would be transferred to a health facility for another 14- day quarantine.
Olivarez, presently the chairman of the Metro Manila Council, assured the affected residents that the city government would provide food, cash assistance and other aid during the three-day lock down.
He added that the announcement of the lockdown was late because their request to the chairman of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force COVID-19 was only approved Monday night.