Carla P. Gomez

The Negros Occidental governor’s office at the Capitol in Bacolod City has been closed after two employees tested positive for COVID-19, Provincial Administrator Rayfrado Diaz said Friday, June 11.The two employees who tested positive for COVID-19 are in-charge of attending to indigent patients, he said.The close contacts of the two will be swabbed for COVID-19 test on Sunday.The reopening of the governor’s office will depend on the swab test results, he said.Negros Occidental had 60 new COVID-19 cases and Bacolod City has 166, the Department of Health reported Friday.Bacolod City had 1,704 active COVID-19 cases and 282 deaths, the DOH added.Negros Occidental had 1,896 active cases and 371 deaths, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.*

Mayor Salvador Escalante issued an executive order Friday, June 11, prohibiting all forms of social and mass gatherings, except for religious worship, to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.Escalante, in Executive Order SGE-015-2021, also temporarily closed all resorts and parks in Cadiz City while the upsurge of COVID-19 is ongoing.Cadiz City is experiencing an alarming upsurge of COVID-19, and it is suspected that new variants are now present and are locally transmitted, Escalante said.He said Cadiz City had 971 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, June 10, and 117 are active cases.Places of religious worship and restaurants may continue to operate at 30 percent of their venue capacity, he added.*

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said he is meeting with the mayors of Negros Occidental Friday, June 11, to discuss the tightening of border controls and other recommendations of doctors calling for immediate action to curb the COVID- 19 surge before it is too late.Western Visayas hit another all time high Thursday with 828 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, the Department of Health reported.Negros Occidental had 212 new COVID-19 cases followed by Iloilo province with 209, Bacolod City – 139, Iloilo City 103, Aklan - 68, Capiz -54, Antique -23 and Guimaras – 20, the DOH said.Western Visayas also had 13 new COVID-19 deaths with two in Negros Occidental and one in Bacolod City.Bacolod City has 1,608 COVID-19 active cases and Negros Occidental has 2,122, the DOH also reported.La...

Himamaylan PNP photoThe government soldier injured in an encounter with the New People’s Army in Purok Galaupan, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Wednesday, June 9, is out of danger and recovering, Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, said Thursday, June 10.The soldier, whose name was withheld, is confined at a hospital in Bacolod City.The 62nd Infantry Battalion soldiers engaged the rebel forces in two encounters in Purok Galaupan that resulted in the death of one government soldier identified as Cpl. Rodney A. Luces and an NPA fighter.A day before the encounter, on June 8, the Army while conducting combat patrol at Sitio Mangkopa, Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan City, also arrested two suspected NPA rebels identifie...

TFM photoAbout 50 landless farmers marked the 33rd anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Thursday, June 10, with a picket to call on President Rodrigo Duterte to stop former landowners from obstructing land reform and earning millions of pesos from land they no longer own.Donning their sacada clothes and wearing black masks with “Stop CARP obstruction!” protest slogans written on them, the farmer-members of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), staged their picket in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Provincial Office at San Sebastian Street in Dawis, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.“Perhaps, it is only in the Philippines, particularly in Negros and in the Panay region, where this ‘doble kabig’ phenomenon happens: former sugar landlords already compensated...

Infectious diseases doctors are calling on Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson to close borders or ports of entry in Negros Occidental to non essential travelers, including overseas Filipino workers, for two weeks to curb the COVID-19 surge.Lacson and provincial consultant Alfredo Abelardo Benitez held a meeting to listen to the inputs and concerns of the medical community at the Capitol in Bacolod City and via Zoom Wednesday afternoon, June 9.“We will adopt what we can. The Provincial Incident Management Team will deliberate and adopt measures,” Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz, said.The Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID) - Western Visayas doctors called on Lacson to implement their recommendations at the soonest possible time before the situation ...

A government soldier and an alleged New People’s Army fighter were killed in two encounters in Purok Galaupan, Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, Wednesday morning, June 9.The first encounter between the 62nd Infantry Battalion soldiers and nine communist rebels at 9 a.m. resulted in the wounding of two government soldiers, Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, said.The wounded were immediately transferred by helicopter to a hospital in Bacolod where one of the soldiers was declared dead on arrival, Pancito said.The fatality was identified as Cpl. Rodney A. Luces of Alimondian, Iloilo, who died a hero protecting the people of Himamaylan, Pancito said.The other wounded soldier, whose name was withheld, ...

City PIO photoPresidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Wednesday, June 9, that Bacolod City will be among the priority areas for additional vaccines because it has been tagged by the Department of Health as a high risk area for COVID-19.He, however, told DIGICAST NEGROS that he would have to ask how many vaccines will be sent to the city and when.President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday night that he plans to allot more Covid-19 vaccine doses to provinces that have reported a surge in infections.He, however, only named Cebu, Cagayan, and Zamboanga.The Bacolod City government has administered of 39,232 doses of vaccines against COVID-19, as of June 8.The Emergency Operations Center-Task Force and the COVID-19 Vaccination Council is continuing to administer the first and...