The Bacolod City government began imposing tighter border control measures, including for passengers coming from Panay, starting Sunday night, January 9.
This was the consensus reached by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, the medical frontliners and executives of the Emergency Operations Center-Task Force, whom he called for a meeting via Zoom Sunday afternoon, a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said.
EOC-TF Executive Director Em Legaspi-Ang led the discussions on stricter border controls.
Ang pointed out that it will be mandatory for inbound passengers from Iloilo City, which is currently under Alert Level 3, to present a negative RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test result as contained in Executive Order No. 1 issued by Leonardia on Friday, January 7.
The rest of Western Visayas, including Bacolod City, remains under Alert Level 2.
But Ang emphasized that those coming in via roll on, roll off vessels from Dumangas that originated from the Caticlan Port in Aklan, will be swabbed by the City Health Office team as many of them might have come from Manila through the Batangas-Oriental Mindoro route.
Dr. Edwin Miraflor, Jr., CHO officer-in-charge, was tasked to field his swabbers at the ro-ro port in coordination with the monitoring team of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office immediately.
They will be on duty until midnight tonight, he said.
An S-PASS is also a mandatory requirement for incoming passengers originating from destinations with higher alert levels like Manila and Iloilo City.
QUARANTINE FACILITIES
Councilor Renecito Novero also presented updates on the state of city government-run quarantine and isolation facilities in anticipation of the post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases and possible Omicron transmission.
Novero, who met with members of his multi-agency committee on Monday, informed Leonardia that of the total number of LGU quarantine facilities, only Antonio L. Jayme Elementary School in Mansilingan and the Mariano G. Medalla Integrated School in Pahanocoy are currently occupied.
Novero, chair of the SP Committee on Education, also informed the body of the willingness of DepEd school heads to allow their facilities for use in case of COVID uptick.
COVID MEDICINES
Other concerns taken up at the EOC-TF meeting were the availability of food supply to be served by the Department of Social Services and Development at the quarantine facilities, as well as the possibility of pre-emptive purchases of COVID medicines to ensure availability of supply in case there will be another round of surge.
Novero said that the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Health had previously allowed the allocation of Special Education Fund for the purpose.
Miraflor said pre-emptive purchases will guarantee the LGU of supply as the need arises.
But Leonardia said that before the city resorts to that option, it is best that the LGU first secure the opinion of the Commission on Audit.
He tasked Novero and Miraflor to draft the letter-inquiry related to medicine purchases after the CHO head disclosed that supplies of Remdesivir, Molnupiravir and other COVID drugs are running low in Metro Manila.*