BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental’s provincial government will continue imposing its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) protocols for travelers despite a recent national directive on the uniformity of protocols.
According to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, the national government’s new, uniform protocols were “somewhat contradictory” as it still gave local government units (LGUs) the “power to impose reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests prior to a person’s travel.”
“When [travelers] arrive they’ll be tested and quarantined,” Lacson stressed. “I hope the Negrenses will cooperate. This is for their own good.”
Lacson pointed out the importance of testing travelers, stating that the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the province was “due to persons from outside Negros Occidental, particularly the locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and authorized persons outside of residence (APORs)”
“If infected travelers come in undetected, we would have had a problem with local transmission,” Lacson said.
Malacañang announced that the country’s Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 approved uniform travel protocols for all LGUs. Travelers would no longer be required to undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing and quarantine unless the LGU of destination requires such./PN
