By Uriel Quilinguing, Contributing Editor A VILLAGE of over a hundred households in Catarman town, Camiguin has been under localized lockdown since Thursday after one of its residents, who came home from abroad, had tested positive for coronavirus disease. Mayor Kiterio Antonio Palarca described his town’s lone Covid-19 active case as a female overseas Filipino worker based in Lebanon, a country with verified cases of Covid-19 variant, and a resident of barangay Bonbon. The 52-year old asymptomatic patient is on voluntary isolation in her house at Purok 4 while her family-owned store had closed shop. Executive Order No. 6 which Palarca issued Thursday to contain the spread of Covid-19 infections noted that the returning resident has been exposed to many people upon her arrival over a week ago, before the swab test result came. Camiguin’s latest confirmed Covid-19 case, labelled as returning overseas Filipino/locally stranded individual (ROF/LSI), was reflected in the Jan. 31 briefer of the Department of Health 10. The OFW from Lebanon is one of Camiguin’s three active cases while 71 other confirmed Covid-19 infections in the island have already recovered. Adriano Suba-an, director of the DOH Region 10, said that testing laboratories have a standard operation procedure for ROFs from countries with Covid-19 variant cases test positive to extract two specimens. Suba-an said that one of the two samples would be sent either to the Philippine Genome Center or to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine for identification of the Covid-19 variant. The health agency has reported 25 cases of Covid-19 United Kingdom variants, the latest three in Bontoc, Mountain Province. Other detections are in Liloan, Cebu and in La Trinidad, Benguet. With Catarman’s barangay Bonbon under community quarantine, Purok 4 is identified as the “critical zone” while Purok 3 and 5 are within the “containment zone,” and nearby barangays of Catibac (Catarman) and Naasag of Mambajao under “buffer zone.” “Movement (incoming and outgoing) of all persons within the area (containment zone) is strictly restricted starting 8:00 o’clock in the evening of February 4, 2021 until further notice,” states a portion of Order. The mayor said the lifting of the order would depend on the recommendation of Dr. Gretchen L. Cabalang, the provincial health officer. Palarca’s directive allows all public and private offices, facilities and establishments to remain open but all must observe the minimum public health standards; skeletal staffing, safe distancing, wearing of face covering and hand gloves, and the use of personal protective equipment. The municipal joint task force on Covid-19, composed of police, health, fire protection, and risk reduction and management personnel have been tasked to enforce the strict observance of the health protocols within the area covered by the localized lockdown directive. As of Friday, the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (RIATF-Erid) has yet to receive a copy of EO No. 6, series of 2021 which Palarca released. Arnel Agabe, regional director of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Region 10, said that the parameters on the issuance of a localized or granular lockdown have to be met, including the existence of a Covid-19 positive case and the identification of the index case’s household. Every executive orders the local chief executive issues, putting a specific area under localized lockdown, such must be concurred by the RIATF-Erid. Palarca said he has requested last Friday Camiguin governor Jurdin Jesus M. Romualdo’s endorsement of E.O. No. 6 to the RIATF-Erid requesting for latter’s concurrence. This is the third localized lockdown in the island province; the first was in Mahinog involving a municipal social worker, and the second in Mambajao which was a case of local infection.