General Santos docs seek summit as Soccsksargen COVID-19 cases surge

Organized physicians proposed a COVID-19 Summit in General Santos City so the city’s officials and citizens could collectively decide what to do in the wake of a surge in new infections in the Soccsksargen region this June.

The proposal came Thursday, June 24, as Region 12 saw new COVID-19 cases reaching 3,703 in the past two weeks despite measures put in place.

General Santos City, the region’s center of commerce and trade, has been placed under a general community quarantine (GCQ) classification by the Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19 (IATF) since June 1.

Dr Fidel Peñamante, president of the local chapter of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), said that a COVID-19 summit would allow every sector in General Santos to propose specific actions to take to prevent the virus from further spreading in the city.

“Marami kaming alam na hindi alam ng ating mga kababayan, ng ating business community, ng ating mga lawmakers. Kaya gusto namin na magpatawag na ng COVID summit, para once and for all, mapag-usapan ano pa ang dapat gawin natin,” Peñamante said.

(We have knowledge that the public, the business community, and the lawmakers are not aware of. That is why we are calling for a COVID summit so that once and for all we can talk about what to do.)

The group has urged the local government to impose a 14-day “hard lockdown,” but General Santos Mayor Ronnel Rivera said that city hall has to do a balancing act.

Rivera said local officials were studying every option while keeping in mind the need to cushion the impact of any decision on the local economy.

The city government has so far imposed a “No-Movement Sunday” policy, nightly curfews, liquor ban, and has limited the number of people going to malls, food establishments, and churches.

Arjohn Gangoso, health education and promotions officer of the Department of Health (DOH) in Soccsksargen, said experts have noted that the virus has been spreading fast in households, offices, and other workplaces in some parts of the region in the past few weeks.

Gangoso blamed the rate of COVID-19 infections on many people’s disregard of basic health protocols in Region 12.

The Soccsksargen region consists of General Santos City and the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Cotabato and South Cotabato, and the component cities of Koronadal, Tacurong, and Kidapawan.

South Cotabato and its component city, Koronadal, registered as the Soccsksargen area with the most number of new COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. It accounted for roughly 40% or 1,453 of the newly-documented infections in the region, DOH records showed.

Another province, Cotabato, and its component Kidapawan City ranked second with 705 newly-documented cases.

General Santos trailed with 681 new cases, followed by Sultan Kudarat with 491, and Sarangani with 373 cases.

With the newly confirmed cases, Soccsksargen’s COVID-19 tally since 2020 reached 20,210 as of Tuesday, June 22. The region’s cumulative number of COVID-19 recoveries reached 17,653.

The DOH recorded 297 new infections and 2,214 active cases on the same day.

Since 2020, South Cotabato has so far logged 6,639 cases; General Santos, 5,288; Cotabato province, 3,859; Sultan Kudarat, 2,371; and Sarangani, 2,027. – Rappler.com