Davao Oriental Governor Nelson Dayanghirang said he would have wanted a temporary provincial lockdown to prevent the transmission of the highly-infectious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus to the province.
During an interview with James Galay, radio anchor of the Davao City Disaster Radio 87.5 Governor Dayanghirang said the best way to prevent the transmission of Omicron to the province is to temporarily prevent the entry of people from other regions particularly from Metro Manila to the province.
“Pinaka nindot unta diha… tagaan unta authority ang local government unit to come out with an order na mag lockdown sa iyahang kaugalingon para maundang sa ning transmission. Undangon sa nato kadali ang lihok sa mga tao kay naay threat sa omicron (the best way is to give authority to the local government units to come out with an order for a lockdown all by itself to prevent the transmission, let us stop momentarily the movement of the people because of the threat of omicron),” the Governor said.
At the present LGUs cannot have their own lockdowns as they would wait for an appropriate alert level system which would enable such lockdown.
He suggested for a 15 day stop on movement among people going to the province to at least stop the transmission of the virus.
Governor Dayanghirang said minus the power to enact a lockdown the Provincial Government is continuously monitoring and updating local contact tracers to be ready for the entry of omicron. (PIA-XI/RG Alama)
