Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno. (File photo)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY —Mayor Oscar Moreno here has rejected proposals calling for stricter border controls, saying it will not directly solve the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), particularly with the new “Omicron” subvariant.
“You don’t respond by providing stricter control on the border or the arrivals. We have learned our lessons that those approaches do not work unless the problem is more severe,” Moreno said in an online briefer Thursday.
Moreno reaffirmed an earlier position after the Department of Health (DOH) on May 17 confirmed the local transmission of Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1.
Implementing strict border controls, Moreno argued, could aggravate the economy due to the controlled mobility of the people.
Earlier this week, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported that a total of 17 cases of the Omicron subvariant have been detected in the country.
The cases, she said, have been detected in Metro Manila, Western Visayas, and Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.
DOH said the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 is believed to be highly transmissible due to additional mutations, compared to the original Omicron strain.
Moreno said Covid-19 vaccination would be the most effective way to fight the Omicron subvariant, aside from strictly adhering to the minimum public health standards.
“The solution is the [Covid-19] vaccination. It has been very clear now, without a doubt, vaccination is the key. The protection that vaccination provides is very crucial,” the mayor said.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, Moreno noted that the city does immediately resort to lockdowns unless advised by the Inter-Agency Task Force.
As of Wednesday, the city government recorded a total of 552,182 fully vaccinated individuals in the ongoing vaccination campaign.
The figure represents 92 percent vaccination coverage from the city’s total target population of 599,929. (PNA)
