BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Regional Inter-Agency Task Force has issued an advisory, temporarily suspending also inbound and outbound travel between Dumangas port in Iloilo province, to Negros Island and Bacolod City, effective yesterday until May 31.
The travel moratorium between Bacolod City and Iloilo City took effect May 25 and until 31, based on the executive orders issued by mayors Evelio Leonardia and Jerry Treñas, who placed Iloilo City under a Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine, which was concurred in by the national IATF, following a surge in Covid-19 cases.
However, the movement of cargoes will remain unhampered, according to RIATF.
Frank Carbon, operator of the Weesam Express fastcraft, said that the week-long travel moratorium between Iloilo City and province, and Negros Island, is expected to result in millions worth of revenue and opportunity losses among the affected sectors.
The Department of Health-Western Visayas has raised the Covid-19 risk classification of highly-urbanized Bacolod City from “low to moderate risk”.
However, Negros Occidental has remained at low-risk classification for three consecutive weeks, the DOH report added.
Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, in an online briefing on the Covid-19 situation in Western Visayas Monday, said that Negros Occidental’s daily Covid-19 attack rate of 6.23 percent for every 100,000 population, from April 26 to May 4, dropped to 2.65 percent from May 5 to 23.
Te also reported that Bacolod’s Covid-19 attack rate of 9.96 percent, also from April 26 to May 4, slightly dropped to 9.30 percent from May 5 to 23.
The DOH–Western Visayas also warned of a notable increase in cases of Covid-19 in Region 6, and advised the public to be cautious, while local government units should step up their response. “We have an increase in the number of cases when compared to the previous increase in cases last year. We can see similar trends in the number of cases, but we would like to veer away from classifying this marked increase in cases as having a second wave,” Te said.*with report from PNA
