Lawyer Lizer Malate, Mandaue City Emergency Operations Center head, says that he will recommend to Mayor Jonas Cortes an extension of his Executive Order No. 19, which will require travelers from Bohol, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental to present a negative RT-PCR swab test to enter Mandaue City. | Mary Rose Sagarino
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Mandaue City Emergency Operations Center (Mandaue EOC) will be recommending to Mayor Jonas Cortes the extension of the effectivity of his Executive Order No. 19 until further notice because of the rise of COVID-19 cases in the city and in the region.
The EO requires all travelers coming from the provinces of Bohol, Negros Occidental, and Negros Oriental who will visit the city to present a negative RT-PCR swab test result taken within 72 hours or a negative Rapid Antigen test result taken 48 hours before departure from their place of origin.
The policy took effect last June 15 and will end on July 24.
Lawyer Lizer Malate, Mandaue EOC head, added that they would also be recommending to the Mayor to require a negative swab test result to all individuals outside Cebu Island who would be visiting the city.
“Just to be sure lang jud. It’s not just for us, also for the person who is traveling aron nga he or she will be confident nga dili sad siya carrier nga makada sa virus sa kana nga area, it’s better safe ingun pa, ” said Malate.
(This is just to be sure. It’s not just for us, but also for the person, who is traveling so that he or she will be confident to know that he or she is not a carrier of the virus to that area. It better to be safe that way.)
The Mandaue EOC added that aside from the approval of the Mayor, decisions of Cebu leaders would also be considered in the implementation of the proposal for all travelers outside Cebu.
“Mao ni ako’ng recommendation, based sa amo’ng nasabutan last week nga meeting with Cebu EOCs. Kinahanglan man gud, ato’ng policy uniform, centralize, and streamlined. We have to protect our border gyud, mao na kung usa lang ka LGU dako’g chance malutsan, daghan’g pamaagi, kung magkausa mas maprotektahan nato ang mga Sugbuanon,” said Malate.
(That is our recommendation based on what we agreed during last week’s meeting with Cebu EOCs. It is needed that we should have a policy that uniform, centralized, and streamlined. We have to protect our borders. That is why if it is only one LGU, then there is a big chance that an infected person might pass unnoticed. There are many ways.
Malate said the city was also not seeing the adoption of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-MEID) resolution No. 124-B as a priority right now.
Under the IATF’s resolution fully vaccinated individuals would no longer need to present a negative RT-PCR test if they would travel to areas in the Philippines
He said Cebu EOCs and leaders had been coordinating to have a uniform policy.
In the IATF’s resolution, the implementation is still subject to the policy of the LGUs.
Based on the July 11 COVID-19 bulletin board of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), Mandaue City has 340 active cases.
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