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Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Sunday, May 7, that while the World Health Organization’s lifting of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern on COVID-19 was a positive development, vigilance against the virus should remain.“This is a positive development but just the same COVID-19 can be treated as an endemic still present in our country. Vigilance is prudent. Use of face mask is beneficial,” he said.An increase in COVID-19 cases has been reported in the country, and on Saturday Negros Occidental had 17 new ones for a total of 91 active cases.Lacson said that is the “result of opening up”.“For the unvaccinated, please consider getting vaccinated” against COVID-19, he said.The DOH said on Saturday that the WHO declaration is “an acknowledg...

Three transportation groups will gather in front of the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) at 6 a.m. Monday, May 8, to air their demands, and stage a transport strike.PCol. Noel Aliño, acting Bacolod police director, said they expect the strike to be peaceful but have put security measures in place.The Bacolod Alliance of Commuters, Operators and Drivers, Negros Bacolod Transport Coalition, and the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center members with their jeepneys will gather at the BCGC where they will hold a program to air their demands after the city government’s flag ceremony, Noli Rosales, Kilusang Mayo Uno secretary general, said.Rosales said they will stay in front of the BCGC until the afternoon if Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez does not face them.They want t...

More than 100,000 children aged five years old and below were vaccinated against measles, rubella and polio during the first week of the ongoing Chikiting Ligtas campaign in Western Visayas.Chikiting Ligtas or the Measles, Rubella and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR OPV SIA) is being conducted simultaneously nationwide until May 31 to address the increasing number of measles cases in the country and avert an outbreak, Dr. Adriano Suba-an, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas, said.Records from the Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development shows that from May 1 to May 5, a total of 113,583 children aged nine to 59 months were inoculated with measles and rubella vaccines. This translates to 17.21 per...

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, May 5, declared that COVID-19 is no longer a "global health emergency".WHO, in a statement posted on its website, said there has been a decreasing trend in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions.“COVID-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said in the statement.“While the global risk assessment remains high, there is evidence of reducing risks to human health driven mainly by high population-level immunity from infection, vaccination, or both,” WHO said.*

Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer*A business leader is calling on city and police officials to swiftly solve the dumping of bodies and body parts problem in Bacolod City that is “sending negative signals to would be-investors”.“The situation is alarming,” Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer, said Friday, May 5.This will be bad for the community because if there are no investors there will be not new jobs, Carbon told DIGICAST NEGROS.One criteria for businesses to invest in an area is peace and order, he said.Carbon said the dumping of bodies and body parts could be the work of vigilante groups.The police have yet to solve the killing of four persons whose remains were...

Negros Occidental remains African Swine Fever-free but close monitoring of a farm in the north is up, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Friday, May 5.Pigs and workers at the farm in EB Magalona have been quarantined, as a biosecurity security measure, after some hogs got sick and died, Diaz said.The quarantine was enforced to facilitate the screening and culling of the sick pigs, he said.The pigs were believed to have become sick because of over population and extreme heat, he said.Conditions in the overcrowded pigpens were aggravated by the heat, Diaz said.Samples from the sick pigs have been sent to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) for testing, he said.The pig population at the farm has been reduced by more than 200 through culling to address the ove...