Pangasinan to impose border control

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines — The provincial government of Pangasinan will implement stricter border control to slow down the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

In an emergency meeting attended by various department heads on Wednesday, Gov. Amado Espino Jr. directed the Pangasinan police to implement the measure.

Col. Redrico Maranan, Pangasinan police director, said this means quarantine control points would be stricter and travelers would be asked to present a quarantine pass, certificate of employment and other documents to prove that their travel is essential.

Maranan said towns and cities which recorded new cases would be strictly monitored. He also urged barangay officials to implement quarantine protocols issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or IATF.

Forty-nine cases were recorded in the province on Wednesday, the highest in one day.

Pangasinan has 608 confirmed cases, 173 of whom remain confined in hospitals and isolation facilities.

Meanwhile, in Bacolod City, police ordered the arrest of seven persons who refused to be tested for COVID-19 at the Bacolod- Silay airport in Silay City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday.

Provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the seven, all authorized persons outside their residence, were reportedly carrying a letter from a Bacolod councilor allowing them entry into the city.

“We will have them located and arrested,” Diaz said.

As this developed, five residents who tested positive for the virus on Aug. 28 and 29 were reported missing.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of the Bacolod IATF, said the patients provided fictitious names.

Familiaran said 531 of the 4,384 Bacolod residents who underwent swab testing were found infected.