By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is currently investigating as to how a traveler from Estancia, Iloilo managed to sneak into the city’s port without producing an RT-PCR test result.

The 48-year-old traveler would later test positive for COVID-19.

Bacolod EOC Executive Director Em Ang said they are currently coordinating with the Philippine Coast Guard in order to find out why they allowed the person to travel by only presenting a receipt of the bio laboratory, and not the RT-PCR test result.

Ang said they are currently waiting for the recommendation from the contact tracing team to find out the individuals who may have had direct contact with the COVID-positive traveler.

The traveler has been placed in a quarantine facility and he is reported to be asymptomatic.

Ang added the traveler will remain inside the facility until he is considered “fully recovered.”

Earlier, the traveler arrived at the city’s Bredco Port and immediately proceeded to visit his relatives in the city’s Barangay Felisa.

He also visited the Department of Foreign Affairs office to process his travel documents before the EOC managed to track him down and place him in the quarantine facility after they received his COVID-positive RT-PCR test result.

It is possible that the traveler could also face criminal charges for violating Republic Act 11332, or the “Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases,” although the City Legal Office had yet to comment if they will push through with the charges./DGB, WDJ

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