LEGAZPI CITY — Organizers of the Luzon Higher Education Press Conference (LHEPC) cancelled Sunday the annual event amidst growing concerns over the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Naga City in Camarines Sur was supposed to host this year’s LHEPC on April 20 to 22.
“In cognizance of the [Department of Health]-issued Code Red Sub-level 1 alert on COVID-19 and the observed pattern of transmission in other countries, the Association of Luzonwide Tertiary Press Advisers (Altpa) announces the cancellation of the conduct of individual contests of the 19th [LHEPC],” Glenn Calaguas, Altpa president, said in a press release.
On Saturday, the DOH raised code red sub-level 1 after confirmation of “local transmission” in the country.
A code red sub-level 1 means governments and health workers must anticipate possible rise in the number of cases, that contact tracing must be intensified, and that strict home quarantine must be implemented, according to DOH.
As of this writing, DOH has not recorded positive cases of COVID-19 in Bicol and all of the 15 persons under investigation in the region have been discharged.
Every year, some 800 to 900 campus journalists from Ilocos, Cagayan, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Cordillera, and Bicol join the three-day event that was last held in San Fernando City in Pampanga in 2019.