Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) personnel man the border area of Talisay City and Cebu City along the South Road Properties. | CDND Files / Gerard Vincent Francisco
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Starting this Tuesday, April 21, 2020, the Capitol will be closing off several access points to Cebu province from Cebu City and vice-versa.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia at a press conference on Saturday, April 18, 2020, announced that southbound motorists would no longer be allowed to pass through the Bulacao boundary of Talisay City and Cebu City.
This means that all vehicles to and from Cebu City will have to pass through the Talisay-Cebu boundary at the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR) that traverses across South Road Properties (SRP) and the greater portion of Talisay City.
Likewise, Garcia said travelers bound for the northern parts of Cebu province would be barred from passing through the Mahiga Creek checkpoint of Mandaue City at M. Logarta Avenue.
As a result, the access points to Mandaue City from Cebu City, and vice-versa, are reduced from seven to six.
Talisay City marks the start of the province’s border in the south while Mandaue City for the south.
Garcia also said all boundaries between Cebu province and Cebu City that could be accessed on foot that served as feeders to CSCR and M. Logarta Avenue would have to be closed.
These developments were in line with the agreement among all mayors of Cebu’s towns and component cities on Friday, April 17, 2020 to tighten border controls if it meant curbing the spread of COVID-19 to other parts of the province.
“We really need to protect our borders. There should be stricter border controls to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of Cebu,” said Garcia.
As of Saturday, there are 179 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cebu, 163 are in Cebu City. The rest were in Lapu-Lapu City (10), Mandaue City (6), Cordova (1), Talisay City (1), and Consolacion (1).
The island’s total number of COVID-19 cases accounts for around 95 percent of Central Visayas’ sum which is now at 187./dbs