BY MAE SINGUAY AND DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Travelers from Panay Island are now required to present negative results of their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests upon entering this city.
In a new executive order, Mayor Evelio Leonardia temporarily prohibited leisure travel between Panay Island and this city.
The movement of all types of goods and cargoes including their personnel (maximum of five persons) and delivery vehicles between Panay and Bacolod, meanwhile, shall remain unhampered.
All Panay travelers including authorized persons outside of residence (APORs) may be allowed to enter the city, provided they present negative RT-PCR test results at least 72 hours prior to arrival here.
Travelers are also required to present the following:
* online health declaration
* Bacolod City COVID-19 Contact Tracing (BacTrac) system registration
* Safe, Swift and Smart Passage or S-PaSS travel coordination permit
* valid identification card
Classified employees of national government agencies such as the Department of Tourism, Department of Agrarian Reform and Department of Trade Industry, Department of Agriculture, among others, are exempted.
Leonardia, meanwhile, warned the public against the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus causing COVID-19 that has already breached certain localities in Panay Island./PN
