Negros Occidental sets 4-day lockdown

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Negros Occidental will be placed on lockdown from Aug. 28 to 31 to allow testing of at least 10,000 people with symptoms of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and former congressman Alfredo Benitez, provincial government investment consultant, announced what they described as “timeout weekend” in a press briefing yesterday.

Benitez said mass testing would be conducted in this city, Bago, Talisay and Silay cities and Murcia town.

“We don’t want to be the next Cebu. We don’t want that to happen,” Benitez said, citing a surge in local transmission of the virus.

He said local government officials should implement border control to regulate the entry of non-residents in their areas.

Negros Occidental logged 896 cases while this city recorded 651 as of Friday.

On the call of doctors to place this city under modified enhanced community quarantine for two weeks as health and quarantine facilities reached full capacity, Leonardia said it was agreed during consultations with representatives of various sectors that quarantine passes would be required while border control and Sunday lockdowns would be reimposed.

He said an ordinance to be sponsored by Councilor Renecito Novero would be approved next week.

Leonardia issued an executive order imposing curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Record high

In Eastern Visayas, the Department of Health said the region logged a record 195 new cases on Friday, bringing the total to 2,053. The recoveries rose to 1,303 or 63.47 percent.

Twenty of the new cases are locally stranded individuals from Cebu and Metro Manila. The oldest is an 86-year-old man and the youngest a seven-year-old boy in Villareal, Samar.

In Biliran, Mayor Gerard Espina of Naval is on self-quarantine after he was exposed to a provincial government official who tested positive for the virus.

In Bataan, a five-year-old boy is among the 17 new cases, bringing the total to 619.

The provincial health office said 10 of the new patients were exposed to those earlier found infected. – Ric Sapnu, Miriam Desacada