Iloilo restricts travel to, from areas with local COVID-19 transmission

ILOILO CITY –– The provincial government of Iloilo on Thursday barred non-essential travel to and from areas in the province with local COVID-19 transmission.

In an executive order that will take effect on Friday, Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. directed the restriction of outgoing and incoming travel from municipalities and villages under enhanced community quarantine measures with local transmission.

The Department of Health (DOH) categorizes areas as having local COVID-19 transmission if there are two persons infected who have no travel history to areas with infected persons.

In Iloilo, the DOH in Western Visayas has reported local transmission of the disease in two barangays in Guimbal town and a village in Lambunao town.

Under Defensor’s executive order, persons allowed to travel from and to these areas are government officials and employees performing their functions, medical and health personnel and persons doing humanitarian work.

Persons traveling for health emergencies and those providing frontline services will also be allowed.

The DOH regional office retracted an earlier declaration that all residents of Guimbal town are persons under monitoring and have to undergo a 14-day home quarantine to help prevent the possible spread of the disease.

In an advisory issued on Wednesday evening, Dr. Marlyn Convocar, DOH Western Visayas director, said home quarantine measures should be strengthened only in two villages in the town where three infected persons reside because the entire town is already under enhanced community quarantine.

Edited by LZB