Come home early if you want to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays with your families, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson reminded returning Negrenses today, December 4.
That is because all those arriving in Negros Occidental have to be swabbed for COVID-19 and quarantined until their test results are out in three days, he said.
If they test negative they will be allowed to go home, but if they are COVID-19 positive they will have to remain in quarantine, Lacson said.
Those returning for Christmas should arrive at least on December 20 and on December 27 for New Year, Lacson said.
Lacson also said with the influx of returning Negrenses during the holidays, he hopes there will be no huge spike in COVID-19 cases in the province.
“We are hoping for the best but cannot refuse them if they want to spend holidays here,” Lacson said.
Flights from Manila and Cebu continue to arrive at the Bacolod Silay Airport this December. However, all flights to Negros Occidental will be suspended on December 24, 25, 31, and January 1 to give frontliners swabbing incoming passengers for COVID-19 tests, time to rest during the holidays, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said earlier.
MINORS AT MALLS
On the ban on children going to malls as a COVID-19 health precaution, Lacson said he will leave the matter up to the discretion of local government units to enforce.
He advised local government officials to get the opinions of health experts if it is safe to allow children to go to the malls
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday, December 2, reversed his position that minors accompanied by their parents may be allowed in shopping malls this holiday season.
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, in his executive order placing Bacolod City under Modified General Community Quarantine this December, said persons below 15 years old and above 65 years old should continue to remain in their homes at all times except when indispensable under the circumstances.
VACCINES
On the purchase of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, Lacson said right now it is not clear how local government units can order them.
“We’re just hoping the national government will evenly distribute the vaccines it purchases” to various parts of the country, he said.
We don’t know if the national government has decided who will be prioritized to receive the vaccines, he added.*