Capiz, Aklan close borders anew

ILOILO CITY – After recording a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in neighboring areas, the provinces of Capiz and Aklan closed their borders anew, following the closure of Iloilo’s borders.

Governors Esteban Evan Contreras II of Capiz, and Florencio Miraflores of Aklan issued separate executive orders Thursday that re-imposed inbound travel restrictions.

“There are recorded local transmissions of COVID-19 cases in neighboring provinces that can also create danger to the safety of the residents of Capiz,” Contreras said in Executive Order No. 20-C.

“There is a clustering of cases and continuous trend of increasing number of COVID19 positive in neighboring provinces,” echoed Miraflores in Executive Order No. 29.

Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. of Iloilo province was the first to decide closing anew the borders last July 1 as new COVID-19 cases increased exponentially over the week with cases of local transmissions in several towns.

With this development, three of the four provinces in Panay Island are now restricting inbound travel of nonessential people.

Only Antique province remains open to inbound travel.

Exempted from the travel restriction in Aklan, Capiz and Iloilo were government workers, frontline workers, those who need medical emergency transportation, or the transportation of essential goods.

Also exempted were those already in-transit, including repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) or locally stranded individuals (LSIs) with complete documents.