BACOLOD CITY –– At least 220 residents of this city and 48 from Negros Occidental, who participated in the “timeout weekend,” tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said more swab test results have yet to be released.
During the timeout weekend, swab specimens were taken from 6,294 persons from the cities of Bacolod, Talisay, Silay, and Bago, and the town of Murcia.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, chairman of the National Task Force on COVID-19, has granted the request of Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson for a moratorium on inbound air and sea travel to Negros Occidental from September 1 to 7.
Lacson said all quarantine facilities in Negros Occidental are used to accommodate the influx of positive cases as a result of the timeout weekend.
“Because of that, there will be no adequate quarantine facilities ready to hold returning Negrense overseas Filipino workers and locally stranded individuals,” he said.