The Negros Occidental provincial government resumed the processing of the S-PaSS (Safe, Swift and Smart Passage) of travelers to the province Friday afternoon, March 26, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
The processing was temporarily halted Friday morning when Zeaphard Caelian, the head of the Provincial Incident Management Team, and three of his staff tested positive for COVID-19.
“We halted the S-PaSS processing temporarily while a risk assessment was underway,” Diaz said.
Two supervisors in charge of processing the S-PaSS applications tested negative for COVID-19 and have resumed work, he said.
They completed processing all the S-PaSS applications for the day, he added.
Travelers from Luzon to Negros Occidental have dropped to 20 percent with the national Inter-Agency Task Force ban on travel from the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal until April 4, Diaz said.
Only essential travelers are allowed from those areas. There is no ban on travel from Cebu and Negros Oriental but travelers must have negative RT-PCR test results prior to arrival in Negros Occidental.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and partner government agencies officially launched the S-PaSS, a one-stop online communication and coordination platform for travelers and local government units (LGUs), on Friday.
The DOST said the S-PaSS is not a contact tracing app, but a platform where travelers could access the LGUs’policies and submit the required documents.
The Department of Health reported Friday that the country has recorded 9,838 new COVID-19 infections, the highest single-day number of cases since the start of the pandemic.
Bacolod City has 18 new COVID-19 cases and Negros Occidental has 8, the DOH 6 also reported.*