This scenic Camara Island in San Antonio, Zambales is temporarily off-limits to tourists to prevent transmission of the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 in villages hosting the tourist spot. (Photo by Joanna Rose Aglibot)
SAN ANTONIO, Zambales — Tourists were temporarily barred in two villages here that host popular beaches, islands, and coves as cases of local transmission of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surged in the country.
Police manning checkpoints in Barangay Pundaquit and Barangay San Miguel on Sunday denied entry to non-residents.
The two villages have been drawing tourists, especially during summer.
The town’s “Pusit Festival” has also been called off while a sunflower farm has been closed due to the health scare caused by COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which outbreak started in China’s Wuhan City in Hube province in late 2019.
The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic since it has infected more than 150,000 people and killed nearly 6,000 all over the world. The Philippines has so far confirmed 140 people with COVID-19, including 11 deaths.
President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a state of public health emergency throughout the country and placed the entire Metro Manila under “community quarantine” from March 15 to April 14, 2020, due to COVID-19.