Iloilo City prohibits non-essential inbound travel amid surge in COVID-19 cases

ILOILO CITY—Border restrictions were imposed in this city on Tuesday amid a steady rise in COVID-19 cases in Western Visayas.

Starting at midnight, travel to Iloilo City was restricted to essential purposes such as work, medical needs, accessing government services, transport of goods and construction materials, humanitarian purposes, COVID-19 vaccination, and returning overseas and stranded workers and residents.

Borders checkpoints were put up to implement the restrictions.

The city-wide curfew is from 8 p.m. to  4 a.m. starting on Monday.

But the restrictions will be lifted every Thursday for those who will be inoculated in vaccination centers in the city.

The rising number of cases, linked to the more infectious Delta variant, has also hit the regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) where two of its personnel were infected.

“We’ve reached 100 plus cases (in a day) for the first time after several months. It is clear that the Delta variant and all other variants are affecting the rate of infection,” Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said in a statement.

“Let us stay in our houses and only go out for essentials. The hospitals are getting full and the deaths are (increasing),” he said.

The DOH regional office reported 53 new Delta variant cases in the region on Monday.

These include 21 in Aklan, 16 in Iloilo province, 11 in Iloilo City, and one each in the provinces of Antique, Capiz and Guimaras and Bacolod City. One case involved a returning overseas worker.

The city’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout has been opened to non-residents amid the continued increase in cases on Panay Island which has strained hospitals in the city, the regional center.

Treñas said the city government will accept even non-city residents who want to be vaccinated in its seven vaccination sites every Thursday.

Those who want to be vaccinated during this day do not require reservation tickets but need to present valid identification documents.

The city aims to inoculate around 525,000 residents and non-residents working in the city.

But Treñas said nearly 75 percent of the target population remains unvaccinated which he said could be due to vaccine hesitation.

As of August 21, 252,450 out of the target population for vaccination in the city have received the first dose while 142,683 or 27.18 percent are fully vaccinated.

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