Negros Occidental mulls border closure anew

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The provincial government of Negros Occidental is planning to close its border anew in preparation for the rise of COVID cases.

This developed after Bacolod City, the provincial capital, logged its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID.

Bacolod Emergency Operations Center (EOC) executive director Em Ang said the patient is a 38-year-old male crew of a cruise ship.

The patient arrived in Bacolod on Dec. 31 and is currently in a quarantine hotel.

On Jan. 1, results of the patient’s genome sequencing showed he was infected with the Omicron variant, Ang said.

Chris Sorongon, EOC deputy chief for medical services, assured the public that the patient did not go out of the quarantine hotel.

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said there is always a possibility that the number of COVID cases outside the National Capital Region would go up again.

“All actions should be considered because we don’t want another surge. But we just have to be prepared,” Lacson said.

The provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental opened their borders in the past months after the cases went down.

But with the threat of the Omicron variant, Lacson said they would continue to strictly require the S-Pass for inbound travelers.

Records from the provincial incident management team showed a steady decline in the province’s COVID cases since November.

As of Jan. 2, only 172 cases were recorded in Negros Occidental, which is currently under Alert Level 2.

Lacson urged the public to continue wearing face masks as well as observe physical distancing and proper hygiene.

Baguio slows down on tourist acceptance

Baguio’s tourism office is reducing the number of tourists in the city as cases of COVID infections are on the rise again.

As of Sunday, the city health services office logged 10 new infections, bringing the total active cases to 73.

A sitio or purok in the city was placed on a lockdown at around 5 p.m. on Sunday due to suspected COVID cases.

Baguio tourism officer Alloysius Mapalo clarified that the city is not under lockdown.

“We did not stop the entry of tourists. They are actually here,” Mapalo said.

He said that what the city does not allow are additional bookings to the current approved travels that were booked earlier.

This is contrary to earlier reports that say Baguio will no longer accept tourists, Mapalo said.

“We’ll set new limits at a reduced capacity and we’ll announce it once we finalize it,” Mapalo said.

Earlier, the tourism office announced that leisure travel requests on the Baguio VISITA website are temporarily not allowed starting Jan. 2 until further notice.

All pre-approved travels with issued quick reaction code tourist pass or QTP will still be honored on the declared travel date, although visitors will be subjected to mandatory triage.

The city government of Baguio is reducing the number of tourists to prevent another surge of infections. – Artemio Dumlao