Now is not the time to consider face-to-face classes in Negros Occidental with the surge in COVID-19 cases in the province, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Tuesday, September 28.
Diaz was reacting to reports that 16 schools in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City are being assessed by the Department of Education for limited face-to-face classes.
The Department of Health has placed Negros Occidental and Bacolod City under Alert Level 4 and classified both areas as high risk for COVID-19.
Negros Occidental had 3,963 active COVID-19 cases and seven deaths on Tuesday, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.
Bacolod City also had 2,026 active COVID-19 cases, the DOH reported on Tuesday.
“Face-to-face class will unnecessarily expose children to danger and they will bring the virus home, which is very dangerous,” Diaz said.
Bacolod City Administrator Em Ang, in a press release, said the upcoming face-to-face classes are an area of concern.
The Bacolod Emergency Operations Center and the COVID-19 Vaccination Council (CoVaC) in coordination with the Department of Education’s City Schools Division made an effort to inoculate more than 700 unvaccinated teachers two Saturdays ago.
Only 45 showed up for inoculation, Ang said.
“Our concern now are the schoolchildren who are unprotected as we cannot yet administer COVID jabs for them,” she said.*