Quarantine sites readied in regions

TEMPERATURE CHECK Department of Health personnel, using a thermal scanner, check the body temperature of passengers arriving at Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental province amid a public health alert. One of the people who tested positive for the coronavirus is in a hospital in Cagayan de Oro City. —JIGGER J. JERUSALEM

Local governments have started implementing measures to deal with the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as at least four cases had been confirmed in the provinces.

In Bulacan province, a centralized home quarantine facility will be established to accommodate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning from countries hit by COVID-19, Gov. Daniel Fernando said.

Fernando said the OFWs would be fetched from the airport and ferried directly to the designated quarantine home to prevent any transmission of the virus.

The quarantine facility will be operated by the provincial government and manned by health workers.

Bulacan on Tuesday recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19, a 58-year-old woman from the City of San Jose del Monte, according to Dr. Joy Gomez, Bulacan provincial health officer.

Gomez said they already carried out contact tracing involving the woman’s family and friends. The patient is an employee of a mall in Greenhills in San Juan City, Metro Manila, where she reportedly contracted the virus.

The woman is now confined in a government hospital in Metro Manila and is closely being monitored by the Department of Health.

In Nueva Ecija province, Palayan City Mayor Adrianne Mae Cuevas said a house that could accommodate five people was being readied as a quarantine facility.

A P2-million quick response fund has been allotted in San Jose City, also in Nueva Ecija, to clean and disinfect important public areas to prevent the spread of the virus in the city.San Jose Mayor Mario Salvador said the city remained free of the virus after a suspected patient, who had traveled abroad, tested negative for COVID-19.

In Baguio City, classes in all levels in public and private schools have been suspended from March 13 to 22, as a measure against the disease.

In Subic Bay Freeport, a P5-million fund was tapped to prevent the virus from infecting locators, workers and residents in the economic zone.

Wilma Eisma, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chair, said the budget that was approved on Tuesday would be used to buy medical equipment, disinfecting agents, protective gear and a new ambulance.

Part of the fund will also be used to maintain a quarantine facility at the Subic Bay International Airport complex, Eisma said, adding that a disinfection protocol in SBMA offices and public areas within the free port has already been in place.

Travel ban

In Batanes province, the municipal council of Basco passed a resolution on Wednesday imposing travel restrictions for residents and tourists coming from mainland Luzon. The travel ban will run from March 16 to April 16.

Local officials in Itbayat, also in Batanes, said they planned to use their correctional facility as a quarantine site since it had been idle due to the town’s zero crime rate.

In Cebu province, Jaime Bernadas, Department of Health (DOH) regional director in Central Visayas, assured the public that the DOH was prepared to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the region.

He said an incident command system was in place, with enough health personnel to handle the situation.

Several schools in Negros Oriental and Cebu have suspended classes amid the national health emergency.

Silliman University announced the cancellation of the traditional Honors Day and the 107th graduation ceremonies, following Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo’s executive order to “prohibit the convergence of more than a hundred people in public events and gatherings” in the province.

Silliman’s graduating students have been advised to claim their diplomas or their medals from the registrar’s office. They may choose to return to the campus to join the graduation ceremony in March 2021.

Classes and work at St. Paul University in Dumaguete City have also been canceled, but students were given school-related activities that they would accomplish during the break.

Sr. Joseline Lasala, St. Paul president, also announced a “lockdown and disinfection” of the campus.

Officials of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu announced that periodical tests for grade school and junior high school had been scrapped since classes would now end on March 13 instead of March 20.

The University of the Philippines in the Visayas, which has campuses in Tacloban City, Iloilo City and Miag-ao town in Iloilo, is planning to resort to online instructions or virtual classrooms to minimize face-to-face interaction.

Graduation ceremonies in Iloilo province have been canceled as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the virus. —REPORTS FROM KARLSTON LAPNITEN, VINCENT CABREZA, CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE, ARMAND GALANG, JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT, NATHAN ALCANTARA, NESTLE SEMILLA, DALE ISRAEL, IRMA FAITH PAL, JOEY GABIETA AND CONNIE FERNANDEZ-BROJAN