ILOILO – The local government unit of Barotac Viejo has stopped accepting locally stranded individuals (LSI) from other provinces and cities. The town’s designated quarantine facility has reached full capacity, according to Mayor Nielo Tupas.
The indefinite suspension beginning July 30, Tupas said, will allow returnees currently in its quarantine center to complete their 14-day isolation and vacate these areas for the incoming returning residents.
“For the meantime, indi kita magbaton kay puno na ang amon quarantine facility,” Tupas told Panay News.
Serving as the town’s isolation center is the 83-unit mass housing project of the National Housing Authority (NHA) in Barangay Vista Alegre. It currently houses 79 locally stranded individuals from Metro Manila and four overseas Filipino workers.
To date, Barotac Viejo recorded two confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, based on the monitoring of the Department of Health (DOH). These patients were in isolation in a separate quarantine facility.
They were the following:
* 48-year-old-female or Patient No. 1129 (health care worker)
* 38-year-old male or Patient No. 809 (LSI)
Apart from its quarantine facility reaching full capacity, the municipality, according to Tupas, also faces shortage of healthcare workers.
Tupas disclosed that six Rural Health Unit personnel were quarantined after being exposed to Patient No. 1129.
“Short kami sa personnel kay [gin-quarantine kag] nagpa-swab ang anum. Kung sige kami baton tapos indi ma-arapalan, mabudlayan kami,” Tupas said.
Should there be more incoming LSIs, Tupas said they would be brought to a hotel that the provincial government converted into a half-way quarantine facility.
This move was agreed by Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. and the Western Visayas Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19, Tupas added./PN
