BAGUIO CITY – Neighboring communities of Mountain Province capital Bontoc town began closing their borders after two staffers of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Saturday (July 25).
They PDRRMO staffers who may have been expose because of their frontline work, according to lawyer Edward Chumawar, PDRRM officer, in a statement that was sent out by the Philippine Information Agency.
The Bauko town government suspended travel to and from Bontoc, and withdrew all travel passes to the affected municipality. “Unless their purpose is a health emergency…, travelers coming from Bontoc shall be denied entry to Bauko,” the municipal government announced on Saturday.
Travel passes from Barlig town have also been suspended effective at 2 p.m. on Saturday, while health workers address the infections, according to its mayor, Clark Ngaya.
Mountain Province recorded its first infection on June 16, after successfully fending off the disease since the pandemic struck. The patient had since recovered.
To protect its residents, Sagada town, a popular tourist destination, recently turned away a film crew sent to shoot landscape images for the July 27 State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte.
As of Saturday, the Cordillera has 18 new infections, 12 of them in Baguio City.