SOCIAL DISTANCING. Public utility vehicles (PUVs) such as tricycles are instructed to observe social distancing to prevent spread of coronavirus disease. PUVs should only take 50 percent of their passenger capacity. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers in Antique are instructed to observe social distancing as a preventive measure against the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19).
Antique Police Provincial Office director, Col. Roy Parena, also the chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Covid-19, said during their meeting Thursday only 50 percent of their regular passengers’ capacity should be allowed.
“The PUVs will not be allowed to proceed to their destination if they are found to have boarded more than 50 percent of their passenger capacity,” he said.
He said the inter-agency task force's checkpoints at borders of Antique-Iloilo and Antique-Aklan as well as in the municipal boundaries will flag down PUVs found violating the social distancing.
Violators will be reprimanded or even arrested, he said.
Meanwhile, starting Wednesday commuters who were exempted from the travel restriction are advised to take the coastal road from Anini-y town to San Joaquin, Iloilo and not the regular route which is Hamtic to San Joaquin because of the border closure in Barangay Tiolas, San Joaquin.
The closure is for Iloilo province to only have one entry and exit to Antique province.
Dr. Inocencio Abiera, Jr. of the Antique Provincial Health Office, said those passengers who would be found to have fever at checkpoints will be brought to the hospital via ambulance.
To date, Antique remains Covid-19 free. (PNA)
