BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Following the rejection of the request to place Negros Occidental under general community quarantine (GCQ), Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said they will adopt more measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the province.
Tourist destinations in areas with high a number of active COVID-19 cases will be temporarily closed, Lacson said.
Those with low cases, meanwhile, will be allowed to operate at only 50 percent capacity.
Cockpits in the province will also remain closed until further notice, while only limited attendees will be allowed for events such as weddings, baptisms and funerals.
Individuals who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms must undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing to further curb the spread of the virus.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases denied the provincial government’s request with Interior undersecretary Epimaco Densing III explaining that the attack rate in the province was only at 1.97 percent, far from the average daily attack rate of seven percent to be considered “high risk”.
Attack rate is the percentage of a population that contracts the virus in a given period.
Growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the province is also currently at 107 percent, far from the 200 percent which is considered “high risk”.
As of April 13, Negros Occidental had a total of 8,952 COVID-19 cases – 1,572 active, 7,142 recovered and 238 dead./PN
