Governor Dennis Pineda urged on Wednesday the local chief executives of each city and municipality in the province to activate their respective temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMF), and expedite the vaccination rollout.
During an emergency meeting held at the New Legislative Building here, Governor Pineda mentioned that the utilization rate of COVID-19 ward beds in both private and public hospitals is approaching critical level as the average of reported COVID-19 cases ballooned to 400 daily.
As of August 25, Pampanga has reported a total number of 33,173 confirmed COVID-19 cases: 5,268 of which remain active; 26,249 have recovered; while 1,656 have died.
In response to this, Governor Pineda appealed to city and municipal mayors to use their existing TTMF in isolating individuals who are identified as close contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19.
Angelina Blanco, special assistant to the governor and PDRRM officer, said during her presentation that there are still 659 available isolation beds across the province.
With the said total number of unutilized isolation beds, Governor Pineda asked the local chief executives to maximize their respective TTMF, and strengthen the contact-tracing within their area of jurisdiction.
Furthermore, the governor also enjoined the local leaders to strictly implement localized containment or granular lockdown at the barangay level in order to mitigate the transmission of the deadly virus.
“At this time, we need to prioritize imposing a 10-day granular lockdown only on barangays hit by COVID-19 surge,” Governor Pineda said, as he stressed that putting a town or city on lockdown will affect the livelihood of the Kapampangans, as well as the economy of the province.
He also directed the local government officials to implement the Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat, Reintegrate, and Immunize (PDITR-I) strategies, along with the health and safety protocols.
“We need to expedite the vaccination rollout. If we can vaccinate 20,000 or more people per day, better,” he said.
He also added that the provincial government is exerting its best efforts to address the needs of the Kapampangans, especially in these trying times.