CEBU CITY, Philippines — Eastern Visayas has closed its ports from locally stranded individuals (LSIs) for 14 days due to the sudden increase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the region on August 19, 2020.
The region recorded a total of 2,248 cases with 851 active cases on that day and the Department of Health (DOH) revealed that 57.5 percent of cases were from LSIs coming home to the provinces.
With this, the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force in Eastern Visayas (RIATF-8) has decided to put a 14-day moratorium against LSIs travelling to the region to control this sudden rise of cases.
This means that those LSIs bound for Eastern Visayas provinces will have to cancel their trips even if they have complete travel requirements.
The Regional Inter-Agency Task Force in Central Visayas (RIATF-7) urged the LSIs to coordinate with their local government unit (LGU) of destination for advice on when they might go home.
For now, the LSIs are encouraged to stay put and wait for the moratorium to end in order to book flights or tickets home.
For those with scheduled trips, they are advised to reschedule their trips as they will not be allowed to dock at any of the ports in Eastern Visayas. /dbs