By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson blamed the lack of cooperation of the public to the continuing rise of coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, cases in the province.

Lacson said this is evident in areas far from the centers of cities and towns where people do not even wear masks.

“In the mountainous villages many people are not wearing masks,” the governor pointed out.

Lacson called on local government units to exert more effort in implementing the minimum health protocols.

“More efforts should also be focused on contact tracing,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lacson said that compliance with the vaccination campaign has improved after he issued new guidelines to hasten the utilization of the current supply of vaccines.

“We will not use the Pfizer vaccines until we have used all the Sinovac vaccines in our inventory,” he said.

As of yesterday, Negros Occidental has 17,562 COVID-19 cases, of which 2,311 are active cases, 14,930 recoveries and 313 deaths./DGB, WDJ