Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia has ordered the extension of the General Community Quarantine with Heightened Restrictions (GCQ-HR) in Bacolod City from Thursday, July 22, to July 31.
Leonardia, in Executive Order No. 41, said this was pursuant to the decision of the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-MEID).
The mayor pointed out that national health authorities have issued “a massive warning and stern caution about the entry into the Philippines of the Delta variant of COVID-19, otherwise known as B.1,617.2, which has been found to spread more easily among humans and is more contagious and more virulent than the original strain.”
Western Visayas health authorities have also issued public warnings after two Delta variant cases were also detected in Panay Island, he added.
Leonardia said in a televised announcement during a press briefing Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, announced that the NIATF-MEID and President Rodrigo Roa Duterte had decided that Bacolod City should remain under GCQ-HR from July 22 to 31.*