Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi has ordered for a 14-day lockdown of Barangay Poblacion 6 here due to a high number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) positive cases that included one death.

Lawyer Kitem Kadatuan Jr., Secretary to the Mayor, said the village lockdown commenced early Thursday after a 52-year-old male resident of the area died at the government-run hospital here on Tuesday night due to Covid-19 complications.

“The lockdown would also give our contact tracers easier access to people who had close contact with the patient who died,” Kadatuan said in an interview with a local radio station.

At least 10 of the 38 active Covid-19 cases in this city came from the village, he added.

Kadatuan said the Covid-19 fatality is a fish vendor at the Cotabato City Arcade, the second biggest market site in the city, leading them to believe that the patient came in contact with many people before he tested positive for the virus.

He said contact tracers are also currently using the local online contract tracing application to determine the people who visited establishments at the arcade area during the past several days.

Out of the city’s population of close to 300,000, Kadatuan said some 260,000 city residents and 210,000 visitors have so far registered with the city online contract tracing program.

“Senior citizens and minors are required to register online with the contracting program for them to enter malls, government offices and business establishments in the city,” Kadatuan said.

The city government has given all city residents and non-residents up to Sept. 28 to register with the contact-tracing program or they will be barred from entering the city and all its establishments as well. (PNA)