BACOLOD City – Some 213 residents of Negros Occidental returned home from Cebu which is under strict health protocols due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Negrenses came home onboard four vessels that docked at the Danao port in Escalante City on June 18.
They were allowed to travel after Escalante City Mayor Melecio Yap Jr. coordinated with Tabuelan town Mayor Raul Gerona, who issued an executive order banning ferries bound for Negros and Iloilo to leave Cebu by way of Tabuelan port starting Wednesday.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson directed Yap to coordinate with Gerona.
Diaz added that Provincial Health Office personnel had been deployed to set up stations at the Escalante City Coliseum to collect swab samples from arriving locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
After arriving, the residents were brought to the coliseum to undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for COVID-19.
“They were not allowed to leave unless their respective local government units (LGUs) picked them up,” Diaz said.
The provincial government has imposed stricter rules for LSIs from the island of Cebu, particularly Cebu City, which has the highest COVID-19 cases in the country.
In Executive Order 20-26, Lacson said Negrenses coming from Cebu would be allowed to enter this province only through the Danao port while the admission of LSIs depends on the capacity of the isolation facility in Cadiz City.(With a report from PNA/PN)
