Quezon gov tightens border control vs COVID-19 Delta variant

LUCENA CITY – Quezon Governor Danilo Suarez has started to impose strict border control and added safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Suarez has ordered the police to conduct strict monitoring of inbound travelers particularly from the National Capital Region.

He explained that Quezon-bound travelers shall be limited to “Authorized Persons Outside their Residences; essential and emergency travels; returning residents of Quezon; and those bound to southern provinces of the country.”

Suarez said there will be only one loading and unloading area for public transportation in every town.

“If any disembarking passenger is not a regular commuter and has no valid medical certificate, the person will be under isolation for five to seven days,” Suarez explained in a phone interview.

Suarez urged residents in the province to strictly observe all COVID-19 health and safety protocols amid the threats from the more deadly Delta variant.

“Though we don’t have any confirmed Delta variant case in Quezon, let us all assume that we already have that variant in our midst,” he stressed.

On Thursday, July 29, Dr. Grace Santiago, head of the Integrated Provincial Health Office in Quezon, revealed that a resident of the province has been traced as a close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 Delta variant case in Laguna.

The “close contact” has already been isolated in an undisclosed facility and swab specimens were already sent to Philippine Genome Center (PGC) for genome sequencing.

At Saturday midnight, Colonel Joel Villanueva, Quezon police director, personally supervised law enforcers manning the checkpoints in provincial boundaries.

“Establishment of border control points (BCP) is vital to prevent the spread of COVID-19 Delta variant,” Villanueva said in a statement.

He reminded policemen at the checkpoints to strictly observe the protocols being implemented by the Inter Agency Task Force “with no let-up but to always observe the rule of law.”

The 150-kilometer portion of the Maharlika Highway that passes through the province runs from the Quezon-Laguna border in Tiaong town down to Calauag town in the Quezon-Bicol boundary.

Checkpoints were put up at the Quezon-Laguna border in Tiaong, Lucban, and Real towns.

On Saturday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has ordered the Philippine National Police to put up checkpoints in the NCR-Plus region effective midnight to ensure that only authorized people can cross borders in compliance with IATF Resolution No. 130-A. The NCR-Plus is composed of Metro Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Laguna, and Rizal.

The restrictions were imposed before the actual enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) begins in Metro Manila on August 6 to prevent the spread of Delta variant.