I believe it was verified in a post in this thread. Decision will be made on the 16th. I imagine it will just be extended to avoid any political repercussions since other provinces/regions have already done so. Less risky for politicians (not to be mistaken with leaders) to follow than to lead in situations where the outcome is mostly unknown.
This is the model for shares/stocks brokers - if they do what everyone else is doing they can share out the blame if it goes wrong, but if they are the only one investing clients' money in a particular way then any losses are blamed solely on their decisions! It is a bit like a 'herd immunity' in another sense of that expression.
I do agree that people now have some motivation to NOT get classified as even a potential COVID-19 positive, but the numbers may not be entirely unreasonable. I haven't seen any longer-term statistics for Duma, or even Negros Oriental, but consider these numbers for the entire Region VII (population ~ 7.4 million). Jan 1 through Jan 26th, 2019, Total Reported SARI = 24 Jan 1 through Jan 26th, 2018, Total Reported SARI = 20 And January is definitely more 'Flu Season' than April. And Duma's population is less than .018 percent of the Region VII population. I don't really think that any of the numbers are particularly accurate, but in lieu of good information, you have to base decisions on the information that you have. *A bit off this threads topic - Cebu City just blew up. They came up with 3 COVID-19 positives in Barangay Luz a couple of days ago, today they reported 23 new positives. 21 in Luz and a couple in other Barangay. Edit: They had put Luz under 'lock-down' right away, and they just put Mambaling (where one of today's 23 new positives was found) under lock-down. So things could be worse for us here.
The enhanced quarantine has been very successful in reducing the number of people with COVID-19 like symptoms. The Flu and COVID-19 present very similar symptoms so they are hard to tell apart without testing. Earlier there were many Influenza Like Illness (ILI). Some of these were progressing to Mild and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (MARI and SARI) which are similar to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19. The medical community was pleading with the authorities to enhance quarantine because without testing they could not determine if there was a COVID-19 outbreak and the patients who progressed from the Flu to Pneumonia MARI and SARI were using the same resources that COVID-19 patients would require if there was a breakout of cases. (Oxygen and ventilators) The below graphs show the success of the enhanced community quarantine. 280+ down to 64 for ILI. I remember the count up near Tayason where two COVID-19 confirmed cases recently came from were very high for ILI.
New rule implemented today. Wear face mask at all in all public spaces. If things are improving, why are we tightening measures?
Because they are playing a game of 'catch-up' to what some people (ahem) have been saying should have been done months ago. But it would mean they could introduce changes to quarantine PROVIDED everyone follows that order. And that does not include wearing them hanging by one strap from the chin as I observed in some stores a few weeks ago.
however, people appear to relax. this late afternoon i saw quite a few people taking a walk on the boulevard, further north people were sitting besides the street in small groups chatting, mixed use of masks, certainly no distancing. plenty kids outside as well. Also checkpoints appeared less strict - no forced hand washing, no spraying of anything, didnt even have to step down from the bike, just waved through when entering bacong. had to show my pass just once when coming back to dumaguete. guess in two weeks when they probably will end it enforcement will already be close to helmet law.
From several sources on repeated occasions: There are between 7 and 10 ventilators among the 4 hospitals in Duaguete. The Provincial Hospital as zero (due to politics previous to this pandemic.) And there are 10 mre "on the way." One note of good news: There is an effort underway in Valencia by a team of doctors, engineers, technicians, mechanics and artisans to build "VandyVents" as an emergency measure to stand in for ventilators which we don't have. The government is providing the materials. VandyVents are a development of the VAnderbuilt University hospitals and their engineering department. They are based on automatic deployment of ambu bags.
