BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia appealed yesterday for the public’s support as the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew began yesterday and will be implemented until August 22.
Leonardia said the new curfew is one of the measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19.
He said that a month ago Bacolod has very few positive cases but the figures suddenly spiked. The cases increased by 100 percent in just one week with local transmission also increasing, the City Health Office reported.
Along with the lengthened curfew hours, the city government is also implementing the liquor ban, Leonardia said.
He also cited the existing Inter-Agency Task Force circular that restricts those 20 years old and below and the 60 years old and above from leaving their residences.
“This is a national policy and we will make sure this will be implemented strictly by our authorities,” Leonardia said.
Major public markets in the city are also closed on Sundays for disinfection to eliminate another potential source of the problem, the mayor said, adding that very stringent measures are necessary at this time of pandemic.
It is the responsibility of everyone to see to it that the virus does not spread, Leonardia said.
Meanwhile, a boarding house in Barangay 18, Bacolod City was sealed off Saturday after the barangay recorded its very first COVID-19 case.
Barangay Captain Madeline Diaz yesterday said the boarding house was locked down after one of its boarders, a hospital employee, tested positive for the virus.
The patient was taken to the hospital Saturday evening while two other male boarders where subjected to rapid test and are now quarantined in a hospital, she said.
Diaz said all three boarders are in their early 30s and work for the same hospital. She had the boarding house was sealed off because the boarders move around the barangay, especially when buying food.
She has requested the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office to sanitize the boarding house and coordinated with the City Health Office to have the people in the carinderia, who had been in close contact with the patient, undergo rapid tests.
Diaz said the barangay will provide food assistance to the people affected by the lockdown.*
