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LEGAZPI CITY – The Bicol Pandemic Task Force announced on Tuesday that the region's governors have agreed to tighter border control measures to prevent the entry and spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
In an interview, lawyer Anthony Nuyda, regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and chairperson of the Bicol Pandemic Task Force and Bicol Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (BIATF), said the stricter measures would be carried out in all provincial boundaries, airports, and seaports especially in the region's border with Quezon province.
He said the provincial governors have agreed to issue their respective executive orders (EOs) soon to implement the control measures.
The measures would prevent the entry of local residents from the National Capital Region (NCR) who would like to return home in anticipation of the start of the enhanced community quarantine in the metropolis on Aug. 6 until Aug. 20.
Checkpoint personnel would only allow the entry of essential travelers such as those going home due to emergency situations and authorized persons outside residence (APOR) with health and travel documents including a negative antigen or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.
Nuyda said “the anticipatory measure would ensure that these returning local residents are not infected by the virus especially the Delta variant that is highly transmissible and dangerous.”
The measures would be implemented after the EOs have been issued by the governors, he noted.
He said in Camarines Sur, the local IATF has decided to give all inbound travelers free antigen test, and those who would be found infected would be brought to the designated quarantine facility.
Likewise, only accredited Point-to-Point (P2P) passenger buses would be allowed provided that they follow the required passenger capacity. Passengers will have to submit during inspection their negative antigen or RT-PCR test results.
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (HPG) will field personnel at the border control areas to check and apprehend "colorum" or illegal vans and cars carrying passengers with fake travel passes.
Meanwhile, upon the recommendation of health authorities, the BIATF has issued a directive to all local chief executives to step up the disease surveillance, contact tracing, and putting up of separate facilities for people infected with the Delta variant, in provinces, cities, and towns.
It also urged local executives to direct their barangay officials to set up a system of monitoring and recording individuals that visit residents in their respective communities.
At the BIATF meeting on Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region reported that while it has achieved a 100 percent vaccination for target health workers, it, however, failed to meet the 80-percent goal for senior citizens and persons with comorbidities under the A2 and A3 group, respectively, because of hesitancy.
“We have to launch an aggressive campaign to convince these senior citizens and those persons with comorbidities to be vaccinated because studies indicate that there’s a very high mortality rate, under this group,” Nuyda said. (PNA)
