Cebu gov says preventing coronavirus entry tougher than stopping swine fever
CEBU CITY—The provincial government of Cebu would further tighten enforcement of a health protocol that would prevent the entry of passengers with fever, cough, cold, body weakness and difficulty in breathing at any of the province’s ports of entries.
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia said she wanted the protocol more strictly implemented following the local transmission of COVID-19 elsewhere.
In the governor’s Executive Order No. 5-B, issued last Feb. 12 yet, no one would be allowed entry in the province if he or she showed symptoms of the virus at the port of origin.
“Passengers showing such symptoms shall not be allowed to board the aircraft bound for Cebu,” the EO read.
The same protocol will also apply for domestic sea travel bound for Cebu.
Garcia said she wished she could impose a ban similar to the one on African swine fever-infected pork and pork products in the province “or Greenhills and Greenhills-related parishioners.”
“We cannot, it is difficult,” she said. “What we can do is to step up our preventive measures,” Garcia added after calling for an emergency meeting of the Cebu Task Force on COVID-19.
Garcia was referring to the local transmission of the virus at a prayer hall in Greenhills, a popular shopping destination in San Juan, Metro Manila.
On other local transmissions in Luzon, Garcia said the Department of Health (DOH) has yet to be definite because health authorities were still conducting contact tracing of people who had been in contact with carriers.
The governor also ordered a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for travellers who are arriving from Iran and Italy, two of the places outside China hardest hit by COVID-19.
The Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) was tasked with checking passports of travellers to know if they had been to countries with cases of COVID-19.
Passengers who have travel histories to places with COVID-19 cases would have to agree to either a quarantine or return to their port of origin.
The order would be disseminated to airlines, which would inform passengers of the Cebu provincial government’s protocol before they board flights from their ports of origin.
