ILOILO CITY – The city government has alerted the provincial government to the increasing confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases traced to the Iloilo Fishing Port Complex (IFPC) in Tanza, City Proper district here.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said he called up Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. to warn him to keep a close watch on markets across the province.

“Considering that there are a lot of cases, it would not be remote that there are infected persons who bought their fish stocks from our fishing port,” Treñas said.

Fish vendors and brokers from various markets in Iloilo province source their supplies from the IFPC, a major fish-trading hub.

Other supplies are sourced from northern Iloilo and Capiz.

Of the 64 infections tracked to the IFPC, 36 were recorded on Thursday.

The city government locked down the fishing port on August 2 after two confirmed cases were found to be working at the complex.

The move paved the way for disinfection and contact tracing but 26 more cases were confirmed on August 5, prompting Treñas to extend the lockdown.

He also placed under localized containment starting Friday barangays Cuartero and San Juan where four and 10, respectively, of the 36 new cases reside.

Barangays Simon Ledesma and Airport, which have three cases each, are now warning zones, which means that they would also be placed on localized containment if a new case is reported.

Selected houses in barangays Rizal Pala-Pala Zones 1 and 2 and North Baluarte were placed under localized containment from August 5 to 8, and this could be extended.

 Barangays with localized containment have cases traced to the IFPC.

Treñas attributed the rise in cases to the fishing boats coming in from various parts of the country to unload their catch at the IFPC and the fish port management’s lack of safety protocols.

“We will continue to extend the lockdown if we see more cases coming up,” he said.

Apart from cases at the fish port, Iloilo City on Thursday also recorded two new cases from a call center and one locally stranded individual.

Two deaths were also logged – a 78-year-old woman from City Proper and a 69-year-old man from San Juan, Molo. 

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