TRAVEL RESTRICTION. Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. on Thursday (April 2, 2020) orders travel restriction in municipalities with confirmed local transmissions of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The Department of Health has confirmed a local spread of the disease in the municipalities of Guimbal and Lambunao. (PNA file photo by Gail Momblan)
ILOILO CITY – Traveling to municipalities with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) local transmission is now being restricted in Iloilo province.
On Thursday, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. signed executive order 100 which implements additional procedures and disease prevention and control measures against the further spread of the disease.
In a media interview, Defensor cited the statement of the Department of Health which confirms that there is already a local transmission of Covid-19 in the municipalities of Guimbal and Lambunao.
The governor also said the Interagency Task Force Resolution 11 advises a municipal or city-wide community quarantine where there are at least two positive Covid-19 cases in different villages in the same locality.
“If we have two positive cases in one town but from different villages, we step up (the measures). That is why we added the travel restriction because we have two towns with local transmissions,” he said.
Defensor, however, clarified that the executive order will not only be applicable to the towns of Guimbal and Lambunao but to other localities as well in case a local transmission is confirmed by the DOH.
“This applies to all. The general rule is there will be no travel to and from the municipality or city (with confirmed local transmission). (It) shall be restricted because we limit the movement of the people and the spread of the disease,” he said.
The order exempts government officials fulfilling their functions; persons traveling to address health emergency that cannot be catered by the quarantined municipality or village; and medical personnel and humanitarian workers who perform their functions.
Persons that are authorized to travel within the province and Iloilo City under the enhanced community quarantine shall also be allowed passage through the quarantined municipality or village.
The governor also assured that the movement of goods will not be hampered because of the travel restriction.
The order also exempts those providing front-line services, accompanying crew, driver, delivery trucks for trade, commerce, or agriculture; and the delivery of social and humanitarian services are also allowed.
“We let them pass because we need their services and products that they deliver to the quarantined area, provided that the people that are allowed to travel shall be subject to strict quarantine procedure,” the governor said.
He said persons who were stranded in a quarantined municipality or village shall be allowed to exit and must have the necessary certification that he or she is not a person under monitoring or person under investigation for Covid-19.
Meantime, in his Facebook account, Iloilo Board Member appealed that Lambunao residents seeking treatment from other hospitals in the province to be spared from discrimination.
He said that since the Dr. Ricardo Y. Ladrido Memoria Hospital in Lambunao has been designated to treat mild patients under investigation (PUI), then it was “forced to close its general and pediatric services”.
It can only receive emergency cases and dog bites. In case of emergency, the patient is being stabilized and referred to hospitals either in Calinog or Janiuay.
“I have spoken to Dra. Alicia Cordero of our district hospital to inform me of cases of government hospitals refusing treatment to our patients,” he said in his account.
“Lambunao is taking a risk in treating PUI patients from different municipalities. Our front-liners are bearing the brunt of a designation that we didn’t ask for,” he added. (PNA)
