Region Nine Chairman Bryan Allicock is attributing the control of the spread of COVID-19 in the region to strict enforcement of the COVID-19 emergency measures.
In August, there was a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Region Nine. As a result, government prohibited non-essential travel to and from the region while residents were required to wear masks in public, adhere to a 6pm to 6am curfew and gatherings of more than five persons were prohibited. Allicock stated that while a significant number of cases were also recorded in September, most of the persons who had received confirmation of their positive results had already recovered as they were tested at the beginning of August but due to a testing backlog they did not receive their results until a month later.
He noted that with special measures in place for the region, all that was left to do was to ensure that those measures were followed. One of the first steps regional officials took, he said, was to send a draft of the measures to all the toshaos in the region. The toshaos were instructed to explain the contents of the draft and warn residents that if they disregarded any of the measures they would be penalized.