The modified enhanced community quarantine recently imposed by the national government in the National Capital Region (NCR) bought time for Cagayan de Oro City Hall to prepare its community isolation units (CIUs) for arrivals in other provinces, Mayor Oscar Moreno said.

“The two-week MECQ only limited the number of sweeper flights from Manila to Cagayan de Oro City but there will be still be flights from Clark Airport, Cebu and Davao. What´s important is it bought us time to prepare our CIUs and allowed them to move more people out to the provinces,”Mayor Moreno said during Wednesday noon´s (Aug. 5) press briefing.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared a two-week MECQ upon recommendation from Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in response to calls by medical groups for an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to allow medical frontliners in the NCR time to prepare for the surge in COVID-19 cases.

At the same time, Mayor Moreno confirmed that the two-week MECQ bolstered their offer to house the COVID-19 positive cases in the province. “We already sent word to the local governments of Misamis Oriental about our offer. In offering our facilities to them in these difficult times, all of us should be guided by the virtues of courage, perseverance and generosity,” Mayor Moreno said.

Mayor Moreno said it takes courage for the city to offer their aid to their neighbors despite the real dangers posed by COVID-19.

“It also takes perseverance and generosity to care for their COVID-19 patients due to their limited resources but we take advantage of the MECQ to help our neighbors and by extension making it easier on the national government to handle their own cases,” Mayor Moreno said.