Iloilo City may temporarily stopped accepting returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs) amid the continuing threat of coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.

According to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, the Iloilo City COVID Team during yesterday’s meeting has recommended that the city suspends accepting ROFs and LSIs for a period of two weeks.

The city has already sent a request letter to the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) yesterday.

Treñas also had a meeting with various airline companies.

“I have met with the airlines to inform them about this decision and sent a letter to the IATF. We will start the moratorium upon the approval of the IATF,” said Treñas.

He said the city wants to reassess protocols since there are ROFs and LSIs who tested positive for COVID-19 while there were also those who refuse to be swabbed.

“We have been recording positive results from our returning residents, and it is quite disappointing that some would not want to cooperate with our protocols to take the RT-PCR test which we provide for free. If they do not want to help us secure the safety of our constituents, then we will stop receiving ROFs and LSIs for 14 days, and will only allow entry of those willing to take the test after the moratorium,” Treñas added.

The city mayor emphasized that with the new strain of the virus, the city must always stay vigilant.

“We have been considerate with bringing our residents home, but if we relax our protocols, our constituents will be at stake,” he further stressed.

Based on the data of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the City Health Office, LSIs and ROFs comprised 2 percent each having 76 and 88 cases, respectively, of the 4,709 total COVID-19 cases of the city as of December 31, 2020.

Local cases, meanwhile, comprised 96 percent or 4,520 of the total cases./WDJ