BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
Some 181 locally stranded individuals in Cebu have returned to their hometowns in Negros Occidental Monday, Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, Covid-19 Provincial Incident Management Team commander, said yesterday.
He said that Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has issued a notice of acceptance for the local government units to repatriate the stranded Negrenses via the Tabuelan Port in Cebu.
“We have focused our repatriation in Manila. It’s time to bring home the Negrenses from Cebu,” he said.
He said representatives of the local governments of Sagay City, Escalante City, San Carlos City, Toboso, Calatrava, and Isabela came to Tabuelan to fetch their constituents, who will be quarantined in the facility in their respective hometowns.
They will also undergo swab tests, he added.
He added the province will make an agreement with the local government of Bacolod to allow repatriates from Manila to go home through the Bredco port in the city.
This is because Bacolod is still under modified enhanced community quarantine, he added.
Caelian said they are slowly bringing back the LSIs so as not to overwhelm the quarantine facilities in the province.
Meanwhile, the provincial government announced yesterday that the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) and Surgery of the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City will only accept emergency admissions, pending the disinfection of areas and risk assessment of staff following Covid cases recorded among staff members and patients.
NEW CASES
The Department of Health in Western Visayas also reported 216 new cases in the region yesterday.
Bacolod City has 90 new Covid cases and 83 recoveries, while Negros Occidental recorded 80 new cases, five recoveries, and three fatalities.*
