BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental will impose a two-week moratorium on the entry of inbound travelers to local government units (LGUs) where quarantine facilities are fully occupied.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said LGUs with vacant quarantine facilities would be allowed to accept inbound travelers.
Lacson explained the proposed moratorium was in response to the suggestion of Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) head Dr. Zeaphard Caelian.
Caelian earlier reported that some of the quarantine facilities in Negros Occidental are now heavily congested.
Caelian said the travel suspension will give authorized agencies more time to strategize in the containment of COVID-19 local transmission.
“While some LGUs have triple-digit active cases of COVID-19, there are towns and cities with low cases,” Lacson said.
Getting the approval of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for another travel moratorium will be difficult since the previous request was already extended two weeks ago, he added.
“The travel moratorium is one way of controlling the number of people coming in,” Lacson pointed out.
Based on the records released by Caelian, the EB Magalona Healing Center is now overloaded. The facility is only supposed to hold 107 patients. However, as of May 6, up to 179 patients now occupy the quarantine facility.
The Mambukal Mountain Resort in the town of Murcia is also nearing full capacity with 62 of the 88 available beds now occupied./PN
