BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Over 100 locally stranded individuals (LSIs), mostly from Manila, arrived at the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) port here on Jan. 3 – the first day of the easing of the provincial government’s moratorium on the travel of repatriates in Negros Occidental.
Based on data revealed by Dr. Zeaphard Caelian, head of the Provincial Incident Management Team, M/V Starlite Venus from Batangas arrived on Sunday morning with 10 LSIs.
At around 1 a.m. the M/V St. Therese of the Child Jesus from Manila arrived with 92 LSIs.
Authorities immediately took the repatriates to swabbing booths at the Bredco port. They were required to under reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests for possible coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection.
Then they were picked up by their respective local government units (LGUs) and brought to quarantine facilities while waiting for their test results.
Sixteen LGUs in Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, suspended accepting LSIs in mid-December 2020 until the first week of January to give frontline health workers some time off to enjoy the holidays.
The moratorium also gave LGUs time to either decongest, conduct maintenance and improvements to their respective quarantine facilities./PN
