Mayor Evelio Leonardia urged residents to remain cautious of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-2019) threat even as the city no longer has patients under investigation (PUIs) as of Thursday.

“That is not yet a cause for us to celebrate. There is no time to celebrate yet… Don’t be complacent,” the mayor said in a press conference.

The fast spread of Covid-19 even before vaccines are discovered should serve as a reminder for the public to be watchful, he said.

“At this age and time when traveling is so easy and so massive, we cannot let our guards down. It’s not that we can just stop people from entering our ports. We cannot be an island by ourselves,” he added.

Leonardia also appealed to Bacolodnons not to share wrong information about the Covid-19.

“The problem is that we also have “info-demic”. Fake news is so unnecessary, it upsets people. They get traumatized and paranoid. It is enough that we have this problem. I appeal to everyone. Use your conscience. Please stop spreading lies and fake news for the sake of society,” he said.

On Thursday morning, the Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 reported that “all eight PUIs here have already been discharged with no confirmed cases as of this report”.

The mayor commended the task force led by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran as chairman, with Dr. Grace Tan of the City Health Office as a spokesperson, for doing an encompassing job to enable the city to prevent and control the Covid-19 outbreak.

Last February 7, Leonardia attended the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRM) Full Council meeting on the Covid-19 threat held at the Department of National Defense Social Hall in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Leonardia, the national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, is a member of the NDRRM Full Council. (PNA)