Mayor Pedro Zayco locked down the Kabankalan City Hall Thursday afternoon, April 8, and issued an executive order extending the suspension of cockfighting and cockpit operations in his city following a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Kabankalan’s Covid-19 active cases rose to 95, with 55 new cases Thursday, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.
Zayco said the surge was triggered after numerous Kabankalan residents who joined a 2-day derby at the Andulauan cockpit in Ilog tested positive for COVID-19, and infected other Kabankalanons.
Other cockfighting enthusiasts from Cauayan and Ilog were also hit by the virus, he said.
Zayco in Executive Order 09-2021 issued Wednesday, April 7, extended the suspension of cockpit operations in Kabankalan indefinitely.
In the past few days there was an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in Kabankalan, the majority of which were traced to attendance of cockfighting activities in nearby towns, Zayco said in his EO.
Zayco said city government employees who have tested positive are four from the agriculture office, four from accounting and one from the city health office.
The mayor said he suspects that some of the Kabakalan City government employees were infected by those who had gone to the Andulauan cockpit.
Zayco said he may lockdown several Kabankalan sitios to further contain the spread of the virus. “I will meet with the local Inter-Agency Task Force to evaluate the situation,” he said.
“Covid-19 cases are rising all over the province, the situation is alarming, the spread of the virus is faster than last year,” Zayco said.*