ILOILO City – Starting today, residents here can go out of their houses only for essential purposes, and to do so they must have a quarantine pass.
Yesterday, Mayor Jerry Treñas issued Executive Order (EO) No. 50-A imposing restrictions on non-essential travel of persons within and into Iloilo City and other interventions to stem the sharp increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
This city is under modified enhanced community quarantine until June 15. As of June 3, its active cases reached 1,755.
“There is a need to enforce measures to significantly reduce people circulation to minimize, if not eliminate, further transmission,” part of the EO read.
A household member who will leave the house to access basic necessities like food and medicines must have a quarantine pass.
“Across all settings, it is highly encouraged that the person securing the quarantine pass does not belong to any of the vulnerable sectors such as persons more than 65 years old, persons below 18 years old, pregnant women, persons with comorbidities, immune-deficiencies and other risk factors, and persons with disabilities,” read part of Treñas’ EO.
Meanwhile, Authorized Persons Outside Residence (APORs) are exempt from this requirement.
APORs include the following:
* health and emergency frontline services personnel, all Department of Health (DOH) officials and staff, all health and service personnel stationed in local government units’ (LGUs) health facilities, among others;
* government officials/personnel;
* Justices, Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman, Judges, court employee, prosecutors and lawyers;
* duly authorized humanitarian assistance actors;
* persons traveling for medical and humanitarian reasons;
* persons going to and from the airport with confirmed airline tickets;
* persons crossing zones (LGUs) for work or business permitted in the zone of destinations, or activities authorized by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and going back home;
* public utility vehicle operators, drivers and crew;
* APORS from the national government agencies and other government offices/corporations;
* non-government APORs and other APORs working or doing business in other livelihood sectors;
*media workers;
* business process outsourcing (BPO) and expo-oriented business personnel;
* delivery personnel;
* force multipliers (barangay officials, barangay tanods), Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) team members
* immediate family of the deceased crossing borders to attend necrological/burial service of the latter; and
* leaders of religious denominations pursuant to the performance of their religious functions
Iloilo City COVID Team spokesperson Jeck Conlu said APORs should just bring and present their identification cards in border checkpoints.
NO MASS GATHERINGS
Furthermore, the EO prohibits mass gatherings of any kind until June 15.
Religious denominations are encouraged to adopt virtual means to pursue their religious services and activities.
However, gatherings that are essential for the provision of health services, government services, or humanitarian activities authorized by the appropriate government agency or instrumentality are allowed.
Establishments and offices operating here are enjoined to ensure proper compliance of persons accessing basic necessities and essential services by directing entrants to present valid quarantine pass and/or identification cards/proof of identification for APORs./PN
