Carla P. Gomez

Travelers between Iloilo City and Bacolod City on board fastcraft vessels increased Wednesday, June 16 with the lifting of a travel moratorium.Mayor Jerry Treñas, in his executive order extending Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine in Iloilo City until June 30, lifted the travel moratorium on inbound and outbound travel of persons from Negros Island to Iloilo City and vice versa effective Wednesday.He also lifted all border controls and the requirement of quarantine passes for the ingress and egress to barangays and establishments in Iloilo City.Treñas said this means even non essential travelers may now enter his city.Travelers from Iloilo City to Bacolod City on board Weesam Express that were at 50 a day in the past increased to about 100 on Wednesday, Frank Carbon, We...

Negros Occidental will receive its first batch of Pfizer vaccines Thursday morning, June 17, Provincial Administrator Rayfrado Diaz said.They were informed that two boxes of Pfizer vaccines will arrive but he does not know yet how many doses they will contain, Diaz said.The province has ultra low freezers available for the storage of the Pfizer vaccines at the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City and one is being installed at the Provincial Health Office in Bacolod City, he said.Diaz said the freezers purchased by the provincial government came just in time.Negros Occidental previously received Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines from the Department of Health.The Office of Civil Defense said the Negros Occidental shipment will arrive at the Bacolod-Silay...

The 83rd Bacolod City Charter Day celebration on Friday, June 18, has been postponed because of the current COVID-19 situation, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced on Wednesday, June 16.“The postponement of our celebration is indefinite until better times come. We hope for the understanding of our people as this is a move to contain COVID-19,” he said.The mayor on Tuesday said Secretary Salvador Panelo, chief legal counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte, would be the guest of honor and speaker at the Charter Day ceremonies at the Bacolod City Government Center lobby on June 18.The announcement drew flax from netizens who scored the holding of a mass gathering despite the Department of Health’s having tagged Bacolod City as a high risk area for COVID-19.Leonardia, in a st...

Negros Oriental and Bacolod City now have more active COVID-19 cases than Negros Occidental.Negros Occidental had 1,771 active COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, June 16, the Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) reported.The areas in Negros Occidental with triple-digit active cases are Silay City – 154, Himamaylan City – 153, Kabankalan City – 150, Bago City -133, Talisay City – 131, and Sagay City - 113, the PIMT also reported.Bacolod City has 1,918 COVID-19 active cases, the Department of Health reported.Negros Oriental, which is under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine, has 2,242 active COVID-19 cases, its Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported.The areas in Negros Oriental with triple-digit active COVID-19 cases are Dumaguete City with 910, Tanjay City – 204 , S...

Richard Malihan photoGov. Eugenio Jose Lacson issued a memorandum to the 31 mayors of Negros Occidental Tuesday, June 15, setting the guidelines to improve and speed up the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the province.A simultaneous mass vaccination drive of 13,000 Negrenses in all 31 cities and towns of Negros Occidental will be held Thursday and Friday, June 17 and 18.The guidelines state that immediately upon receipt of the vaccines from the Department of Health (DOH), the Provincial Health Office (PHO) will schedule the vaccine roll-out to all 31 Local Government Units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental.The schedule shall in no case be later than three days from receipt of the vaccines, Lacson said.The official list of vaccine allocation per LGU will be disseminated to al...

The Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiologic Services at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital marked a milestone Wednesday, June 16, as it launched its new Hitachi Scenaria View CT scan, Dr. Julius Drilon, CLMMRH chief, said.It’s a 128-slice CT scan that can bring down scanning time to 30 up to 50 percent than the current scanning time. In fact, a 1700mm whole-body scan can only be done within 10 seconds, he said.“During this pandemic, this would be a safer option for our patients since the machine shortens their stay in the CT scan room, aside from the fact that they can receive up to 83b percent less radiation dose than usual,” Drilon said.Meanwhile, as a COVID-19 referral hospital in Negros, Drilon assured the public that they have a separate dedi...

The medical community aired its dismay Tuesday, June 15, at the failure of the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) to place Bacolod City and Negros Occidental under a “stricter quarantine status” amid the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases.President Rodrigo Duterte announced Monday night, that Bacolod City and Negros Occidental will remain under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), while Iloilo City, Iloilo province and Negros Oriental will be under the more stringent Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).The Philippine College of Physicians-Negros Occidental Chapter (PCP-NOC) headed by Dr. Ronel Sario in a statement issued Tuesday said “We are saddened by the decision of the NIATF with regards to the quarantine status assigned to us, while our neighboring provin...

City PIO file photoThe health care system is about to collapse amid the continuing surge in COVID-19 cases in Bacolod City, Dr. Julius Drilon, Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital chief, said Tuesday, June 15.He said with Bacolod City remaining under Modified General Community Quarantine, drastic bold decisions need to be made now because the primary defense against COVID-19 in the communities have bogged down.“The numbers are out, the cases are rising,” Drilon said.There has been poor enforcement of public health protocols, which needs to be aggressively acted on to arrest the spread of the virus, Drilon said.“The primary defense is prevention,” he said.There is need to continue to educate, test, isolate and vaccinate, he stressed.Drilon also s...

PIMT photoThe vaccine allocations for the 31 LGUs in Negros Occidental.*Negros Occidental received more Sinovac vaccines Tuesday, June 15, and will conduct a simultaneous mass vaccination drive in all 31 towns and cities of the province on Thursday and Friday, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.The province received an additional 6,400 doses of Sinovac vaccines Tuesday morning bringing the total available doses in Negros to 13,000, he said.The aim is to inoculate 13,000 Negrense in two to three days, he said.If there are local governments units that fail to use up their allocations, the vaccines will be diverted to areas that need them, Diaz said.In the past they allowed the LGUs to take their time in their vaccination drives, but with the national government...

A total of 2,761 individuals have been apprehended for violating COVID-19 health protocols in Bacolod City from June 1 to 13.P/Lt. Col. Lester Leada, head of Operations Management Unit of the Bacolod City Police Ofice (BCPO), said that 1,044 were caught not wearing face masks, and 737 for not wearing face shields.A total of 427 individuals were apprehended for violating the curfew ordinance, and 340 for violating the liquor ban.Also apprehended were 213 individuals for failing to comply with the one-meter requirement for physical distancing.From January 1 to June 13, 2021, the BCPO has already apprehended a total of 22,169 protocol violators in Bacolod.Personnel of Police Stations 1 to 10, along with the operatives of Mobile Patrol Unit (MPU), Bacolod City Mobile Force ...