By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) released over the weekend an order approving the request of Negros Occidental for a one week moratorium on the arrival of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) in the province.

Resolution No. 43, signed by RIATF-Western Visayas Regional Director Jose Roberto Nuñez, stated that all LSIs bound for the province of Negros Occidental will be barred from entering the province from October 3 to 9.

However, travel for LSIs bound for Bacolod City and other local government units must remain unhampered and may enter only through the Bacolod-Silay Airport.

Previously, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson forwarded a request to the National IATF for another 7-day moratorium on the arrival of LSs and returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In a letter penned by the governor to Juan Jovian Ingeniero, director of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease in Western Visayas, Lacson made an appeal to suspend new arrivals from October 1 to 7 in order to give time for them to decongest, disinfect, and prepare the province’s quarantine facilities.

Due to the continued rise of Covid-19 cases in Negros Occidental, Lacson admitted that they are having a hard time trying to accommodate the arriving LSIs, and returning OFWs in the quarantine facilities.