PLGU-Davao de Oro conducts site inspection in tourism establishments

Davao de Oro Province--- When several restrictions begin to ease including the tourism sector, it’s no surprise that people were itching to get out and breathe after months of lockdown, but safety remains a paramount concern.

Tourism-related establishments and destinations in Davao de Oro adhere to the DOT’s Memorandum Circular No. 2020-002 “Health and Safety Guidelines Governing the Accommodation Establishments under the New Normal” and AO No. 2020-002 “Guidelines on the Operations of Hotels and other Accommodation Establishments under a Community Quarantine.” Guidelines on minimum health protocol for dine-in restaurants and fast food establishments set by the DTI, DOLE and DOT were also followed.

With this, PLGU-Davao de Oro through the Provincial Tourism Office with the Department of Tourism conducted a site inspection in the municipalities of Pantukan and Mabini this week.

“We conducted the inspection to ensure the compliance for their observance to minimum health protocols like sanitation, social distancing measures, disinfection mechanism, and contact tracing efforts” said Christine Dompor, Senior Tourism Operations Officer of Ddo.

Six (6) tourism establishments in Pantukan with provisional accreditation and Certificate of Authority to Operate (CAO) were inspected and thirteen (13) non-accredited or without provisional permit establishments were also monitored. Meanwhile in Mabini, eight (8) establishments issued with CAO by the DOT XI were also inspected.

Dumpor also said that information materials for public information at entrances were distributed, as well as health declaration and contact tracing forms and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) directory for a close coordination during emergencies

According to the EO. NO. 0043.2020, accommodation and ancillary establishments under MGCQ may undertake normal operation provided that operations shall be 50% operational capacity, retain skeleton workforce which may or may not comprise in house staff and ensure compliance with issuance and guidelines on minimum public health standards.

It’s now everybody’s responsibility to adhere the safety protocols set by the authorities as Covid-19 still lurks in places or individuals we never know. (Jasteen Abella, Information Division, Davao de Oro)

DAVAO CITY TO IMPLEMENT LOCKDOWNS, BARANGAY ECQ DURING MGCQ

Posted on July 2, 2020  by administrator

Davao City will still implement a barangay Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) or house, street, purok, and compound lockdowns during the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“This is to control the transmission especially in identified very high risk and high-risk areas,” Mayor Inday Sara Duterte said in a live interview over the Davao City Disaster Radio on Wednesday.If lockdowns and ECQ happen in specific areas, Mayor Sara said, offices and establishment owners must be considerate to their employees that will be affected by these control measures.

“There will be employees nga dili gyud makasulod not because naa silay sakit but because nasulod sila sa isa ka lockdown. So maghangyo ta mga offices and establishment employers to take into consideration kaning mga ing-ani nga control measures (There will be employees that cannot report to work not because they are sick but because they were locked down. So we are appealing to offices and establishment employers to take into consideration these control measures),” she said.

Lockdowns are implemented in an area with an alarming number of positive Covid-19 cases. When an area is in lockdown, residents are required to 14-day home quarantine. Affected residents will be tested on the 14th day and those who are positive will be transferred to an isolation facility. The individuals who are locked down are those that have exposure to people positive of Covid-19 or have been included in the contact tracing. The city government provides ration and psychosocial support for residents under lockdown. CIO

STAY AT HOME

My column in Mindanao Daily, BusinessWeek Mindanao and Metro Cagayan de Oro Times

During corona times ‘Stay at home’ is a simple message, but as countries (Philippines not yet!) open up with social distancing guidelines, there’s more room for interpretation – especially among friends.

When people in Europe (even in my home country Germany)  were finally allowed to meet with up to 10 friends after eight weeks in lockdown, some couldn’t wait to gather over beers back at their favourite bar terrace, or host a dinner at their apartment. But others were unsure about how to socialise, and some even found themselves judging the different behaviours of people in their network.

Some of my German friends, who are all in their 30s or early 40s, are nervous about how flippantly one member of their group has been taking the risks of the virus. They told me by emails that it felt “too annoying” to wear a mask in the supermarket despite these being mandatory in other European countries. It is a transition phase.... and, certainly, people are starting to look at each other with a bit more suspicion. How about in the Philippines?

Of course, some people have small parties and get-togethers where all guidelines have gone out the window. So what's social distancing all  about?

In my opinion, it's difficult to talk to those who have broken guidelines, and ended up leaving sarcastic comments on one girl’s Snapchat, which caused her to remove him from her private story feed. Although they weren’t close, I don’t think they’ll talk going forward.

Why do we have different boundaries?

Dr.  Kate Hamilton-West, a health psychologist at the University of Kent in England, argues that whereas most people easily understood the message that “you must stay at home if that is possible” during lockdowns, it is “human nature” that more varied types of behaviours and responses will emerge if governments and institutions give people more choice.

This is partly because different personality types can be generally more or less risk-averse, or have contrasting value preferences. “Protecting others, for example, is something that people will value to different degrees... for some people, that might be less important to them than things like, for example, having autonomy over your own decision-making.”

In Sweden, which never had a lockdown, researchers from Lund University found that the strongest indicator of how likely people were to follow voluntary recommendations was their willingness to adapt their actions for the benefit of others. They measured this kind of responsible “pro-social” behaviour through surveys and game-based experiments, focused on how much they would put others at risk in order to win more money for themselves. Being pro-social was a predictor for following physical distancing and hygiene measures, buying a cloth face mask and seeking out health information about Covid-19.

"People are acting like for them, the pandemic is over,” says Gravin Wolfe van Dernoot, a student in the US state of Colorado. And several political leaders and governments all over the world too ... !