BY MATÉ ESPINA
ALTHOUGH far from being considered safe, the numbers of COVID-19 cases are dwindling in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental which prompted local government units to move towards the so-called new normal.
Interisland travel, markets, and other establishments can now freely operate for as long as strict health protocols are being followed.
However, there are some kinks that have to be ironed out. In the case of sea travel between Negros and Panay, despite the order from city mayors Bing Leonardia of Bacolod and Jerry Treñas of Iloilo for resumption of voyage, the fastcraft operators are not inclined to open up.
Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) regional director Engr. Jose Vicencio Vera, Jr. in a radio interview yesterday said they have no info yet as to when the fastcrafts will resume their operation but there are scheduled meetings to hear the issues such as fare hike.
Operators here are saying unless commercial travel will be allowed with minimal restrictions, it will be hard for them to sustain their operations. At present, passengers are limited to LSIs, APOR and ROF which has to comply with travel documents including a negative result in the RT-PCR test.
An earlier meeting among chief executives in the region failed to arrive at a common travel protocol for all with the provincial government of Negros Occidental saying it has no objection to interisland travel provided passengers who are entering the province will have to undergo swabbing. Iloilo province also maintains that incoming passengers must have all the necessary health documents and other permits to present before they can enter.
Meanwhile, the Sunday closure of public markets here have been lifted after the mass testing of vendors resulted to only four out of 347 testing positive. These vendors were all asymptomatic and were now transferred to quarantine facilities.
Truth be told, ever since the second lockdown last month when we saw a huge hike in COVID cases, my household have grown accustomed to patronize the community market in our subdivision or order from online sellers of fruits, vegetables, meat and other basic needs for our consumption even at premium prices to avoid going to public markets.
Even malls here that were allowed to operate looked like ghost towns. I have not been in one for months except in their grocery area and the best time to go is during lunchtime when there are fewer people around. Unlike before when shopping was enjoyable, visits every two weeks, now come with a grocery list to ensure that I get out of there fast enough.
Among the new normal protocols is the use of the BacTrac ID which was adopted from the South Cotabato COVID Contact Tracing System. According to Mayor Bing, “Bacolod could be the first locality in the Visayas to use this application.”
I guess he is referring to the system used by South Cotabato but Bacolod is not the first because a friend who was in Tacloban recently said a similar system, not by way of physical ID, but through an app that can be downloaded in the phone and scanned electronically in various establishments.
Nevertheless, despite a lot of criticisms from netizens, the BacTrac has reached over 200,000 registrants including 5,000 establishments around the city.
Under Bacolod City Ordinance 941, residents and visitors who are doing business with government offices and commercial establishments must carry with them the BacTrac ID or be refused entry. Establishments who will refuse to implement this protocol will not be allowed to operate as well and will be penalized.
This, said the city government, is to ensure “efficient and expeditious tracing of contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients.”
The cards will serve as a “digital logbook” instead of the present set-up where a visitor to an establishment is required to jot down personal information in a logbook.
Of course one issue here is how do we get non-techies or those who do not have the capacity to go online to register? The local government said that they will set up registration booths for physical sign-up of these residents and since that has yet to be implemented, the mandatory use of the app has been moved to a later date.
For some good news, Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya recently announced that the Department of Health is finally going to implement the upgrading of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital into a 1,000-bed capacity from the present 400-beds which was signed into law in 2018 yet.
Since Bacolod does not have its own city hospital, the CLMMRH has been serving Bacolod residents which covers about 70-80 percent of its cases. This has been a contentious issue because instead of the city government investing in its own health facility, it has been investing in aesthetics such as putting up a city coliseum and the controversial Halandumon Tower edifice at the Public Plaza which have been bashed by constituents as non-essential projects.
The lack of our own city health facility has been highlighted more during this pandemic especially with the regional hospital as the designated COVID-19 facility and this news is a welcome relief./PN
