Cebu closes borders with Cebu City anew

MANILA, Philippines — Cebu province is closing its borders with Cebu City again starting today in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

“Serving notice to mayors of the 44 municipalities and six component cities: we will go back to the restrictions on the entry of people coming from Cebu City to the province. We will go back to Executive Order (EO) 17, Section 8,” Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said on Tuesday night.

“No person shall be allowed entry into the province of Cebu as defined by the borders of Mandaue City in the north, Talisay City in the south, Balamban in the west and Cordova on the island of Mactan,” EO 17-H which Garcia issued yesterday read.

Garcia said residents of the province who work in Cebu City can either return to the province or remain in the city.

She expressed concern that the number of cases in Cebu increased when they eased restrictions with Cebu City.

”It is not alarming, but we have to admit, there was an increase,” Garcia said.

She noted that the areas with the most number of cases are closest to Cebu City, such as Mandaue, Consolacion, Minglanilla and Talisay City.

The Cebu City health department said 11 deaths due to COVID-19 were  recorded yesterday, the highest in a day.

More recoveries were recorded at 65 compared to new cases at 60.

The number of recoveries is now 2,242 and the confirmed cases at 4,539.

More checkpoints

More checkpoints were put up as additional personnel from Eastern and Western Visayas as well as Bohol police arrived in Cebu City to help enforce a hard lockdown.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said Negrenses stranded in Cebu are temporarily barred from returning to their province.

Lacson ordered the ban on Wednesday night, citing an increase in the number of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) from Cebu who tested positive for COVID-19.

Lacson said 21 Negrenses and five overseas Filipino workers who recently arrived at the Danao port in Escalante City were infected with the virus.

”Our quarantine facility is not only overwhelmed... We don’t want to receive positive cases. It’s very clear the epicenter is in Cebu,” he said.

In Zamboanga City, the number of confirmed cases rose to 220 after 12 were recorded on Tuesday.

Nine of the cases are LSIs, most of them also from Cebu.

In Tacloban City, health officer Gloria Fabrigas said residents of Tarangnan and Basey in Samar could be banned from entering the city due to the rising number of confirmed cases in the towns.

Basey Mayor Luz Ponferrada said 20 new cases, mostly beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsya program, were recorded last week. Roel Pareño, Lorraine Ecarma, Alicia Ivy Chua, Iris Hazel Mascardo/The Freeman