LSIs not barred from entering WVisayas
LOCALLY stranded individuals (LSIs) will not be allowed to enter Western Visayas as a precaution against the alarming rise in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the region.
LtGen. Guillermo Eleazar, the Joint Task Force Covid Shield chief, on Monday said police commanders were ordered to stop issuing travel permits to LSIs for two weeks.
He explained that the order was based on the decision of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, as requested by the local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas.
“We will wait for further notice as to when the repatriation of LSIs to this region will resume,” he said.
Eastern Visayas was earlier closed to LSIs because the Covid quarantine facilities there were already full.
Eleazar appealed for understanding, saying the directive was based on “valid reasons.”
Stranded travelers bound for other regions would be issued permits so long as they presented a medical clearance certificate and their trip must be coordinated with the LGU in their destination, Eleazar said.
Western Visayas, particularly Cebu City, now has more Covid cases than Metro Manila. The city is under a strict lockdown, with police commandos helping enforce it.
Eleazar had suggested that passengers bound for Visayas and Mindanao must present swab test results before boarding ships.
On Monday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the proposal to have LSIs undergo swab testing has yet to be approved.
He clarified that returning residents in provinces were not required to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for Covid-19 before they left.
“I believe there was miscommunication. PCR testing is not required [for the returning residents],” Año said. “I already spoke with General Eleazar and he also clarified his statement because the protocol requiring LSIs to undergo PCR testing has yet to be approved.”
For now, current protocols would have to be followed, including a medical clearance certificate, travel authority and the 14-day mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the LSI’s destination, Año said.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said last week that LSIs, along with repatriated overseas Filipino workers, must undergo swab testing after Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the government’s national action plan against Covid-19, announced the arrival of 1 million PCR test kits.
The additional kits prompted the national government to revise its protocols in sending home stranded individuals to their provinces.
Año explained that several of the testing kits would have to be prepositioned first to Caraga, citing that the region had no testing laboratory.
“We can provide them (LSIs) with testing kits, since the government has plenty of it. We can do that and the LSIs need not to pay anything,” he said.
LSIs bound for Zamboanga and Dumaguete City were allowed to travel on Monday after their trips were approved by the Philippine Coast Guard.
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the concurrent chairman of the National Task Force against Covid-19, said he had suspended the transporting of LSIs to Negros Occidental, Iloilo and Eastern Visayas.