City Hall of Zamboanga
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The local Inter-Agency Task Force on coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has ordered local authorities to intensify the crackdown against all violators of health protocols in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases in this city.
Dr. Elmeir Jade Apolinario, the local chief implementer, issued the order Monday as the Sunday lockdown policy remains in effect until the end of the month.
Apolinario said in his order to the security sector and the Barangay Sita Task Forces to impose stiffer penalties allowed under the law to all violators.
“The Sunday lockdown policy will remain in effect the whole month of October, amid the spike in Covid-19 cases and the threat of the more contagious Delta variant,” Apolinario said.
The Covid-19 data tracker showed that this city has 16,300 confirmed cases with 13,471 recoveries, 2,090 active cases, and 739 deaths as of October 3.
Sixty-four percent of the active cases are symptomatic, 25.4 percent mild, 4.4 percent moderate, 5.3 percent severe, and 0.4 percent critical.
Apolinario said the “no Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), no entry policy” for all inbound travelers and authorized persons outside residence (APOR) remains as the gold standard.
He said travelers should access the mobile application "Safe, Swift and Smart Passage" (S-PaSS) three days prior to travel date for validation of documents submitted.
Aside from the Sunday lockdown, public and private beach resorts as well as river resorts, including inland and mountain resorts and similar establishments will not be allowed to operate on Saturdays and Sundays.
Meanwhile, the policy also covered the following guidelines: only those going to places of worship, health, disaster risk reduction management (DDRM), and security front-liners and those involved in emergency situation are authorized to go out; religious activities shall be limited to 30 percent venue capacity; restaurants can only accommodate food deliveries and take-out; groceries and supermarkets shall only serve health, DDRM and security front-liners.
There will be no operation of public transport; children 17 years old and below are not allowed outdoors, and flea markets and stores in the barangays will be closed. (PNA)
