Iloilo City wants to prolong its modified ehanced community quanrantine (MECQ) status for another 15 days.

Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, after a meeting with the city government’s COVID Team on Friday, June 11, said he will ask the national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to extend the city’s current community quarantine status until June 30, 2021.

“Based on the recommendation of the COVID Team, we will request that the city remains under MECQ because of [the rising number of COVID-19 cases],” he explained.

“We already requested additional vaccines to ramp up vaccination process of the residents,” the mayor added.

As of June 11, the city has 2,332 active COVID-19 cases.

From June 1 to 10, the city recorded an average of 121 new infections per day.

Treñas said all hospitals in the city had already reached full bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.

He disclosed that there are more than 250 coronavirus-infected patients waiting in line for admission

“It is difficult to make a decision for the whole city. Lives are involved,” the mayor lamented.IMT