Mayor Jerry Treñas is expecting that the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Iloilo City will continue to spike due to the entry of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).
The city government, according to Treñas, is bound by Memorandum Circular No. 2020 – 087 that orders all local government units (LGUs) to accept LSIs with complete requirements.
The city, as of Tuesday, July 14, has recorded a total of 86 cases of the disease, half of which involved OFWs and LSIs while the other half are residents infected through local transmission.
Treñas said the city still has enough quarantine facilities to accommodate the repatriates.
The suspension of travel of LSIs to Western Visayas is lifted starting today, July 15.
In an advisory, Department of the Interior and Local Goverment (DILG-6) Regional Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero said the lifting of the travel moratorium was “part of the agreement” made by governors, mayors of highly urbanized cities in the region, and members of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force.
“However, the movement of LSIs from areas under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ is not permitted,” Ingeniero said.
The travel suspension was implemented last June 29 due to the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the region involving LSIs.IMT
