ILOILO City – All Western Visayas-bound passenger flights and sea trips have been banned for one week.
This was requested by the region’s chief executives spearheaded by Mayor Jerry Treñas due to the spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus, Cebu and other places.
According to Treñas, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases through Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III approved the region’s request on Saturday.
“I was just informed by Usec. Densing that the IATF approved our request for a moratorium of flights and trips for passengers from NCR Plus and Cebu from April 4 to 10 for the whole Region 6,” he announced.
Meantime, cargo trips will remain unhampered.
As to Iloilo City, Treñas said even if COVID-19 cases here are not that high, no one should be complacent.
Relative to the surge in cases in Metro Manila and the difficulties to manage and control the new variants of the coronavirus, Treñas further resolved that the city will have stronger protocols for a period of initially one week.
The mayor has yet to announce when this will be realized. He said he will issue an executive order at a later date.
He, among others, wanted social gatherings in the meantime to be prohibited.
Offices and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies should operate at 30 percent capacity only while the rest should work from home except for the city engineers and architects; accounting for vouchers for payroll and the like; and treasurers for collections.
Also, gatherings of any kind won’t be allowed in barangay gyms.
The Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) was likewise directed to aggressively monitor those who exhibit flu-like symptoms and report to the City Emergency Operation Center.
On the other hand, since construction is considered essential, it will be allowed subject to protocols of the Department of Public Works and Highways and on the condition that there should be compliance officers.
Meanwhile, the city government is tightening its watch on possible increase in COVID-19 cases here after the Holy Week.
“Bantayan ta gid ang mga cases ta both sa national and sa city since most of the labs have been closed for the Holy Week. Halong gid,” said Treñas./PN
