The local government of Borongan City in Eastern Samar has placed the city’s commercial district under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and villages within the city proper under hard lockdown starting Monday until Feb. 1.
The executive order issued by Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda on Sunday is based on the Jan. 15 report by the provincial health office of Eastern Samar declaring community transmission in the city.
“In line with these pronouncements, the Borongan City inter-agency task force passed Resolution No. 1, series of 2021, recommending to this office and the regional inter-agency task force that Borongan be placed under MECQ and a lockdown be imposed in the entire city proper area in order to contain the spread of the virus,” Agda said.
Under the resolution, travel inside the city proper is only allowed for essential purposes, which includes work in the government offices and private establishments, medical and health emergencies, and for purchasing food supplies and medicines.
Persons who will be allowed to enter the city proper are those with required documents and they will undergo a strict check. Delivery of essential goods by cargo trucks should remain unhampered, he said.
The directive also mandates that villages identified as critical zones should maintain village checkpoints, and all households will be issued with one quarantine pass by their respective villages and must ensure that all standard health protocols are followed and monitor the movements of their residents.
Only those with quarantine passes are allowed to go out while all those who are permitted to work will be exempt from the quarantine pass requirements, but they have to present their valid office or company identification cards.
Those who will be affected by the strict home quarantine order will be provided food assistance by the city government.
The curfew will also be implemented from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and operation of business establishments will be monitored by the joint forces of the Business Process and Licensing Office (BPLO), while the quick response (QR) code team will closely monitor the compliance of all business establishments of all minimum health standard protocols.
Business establishments allowed to operate such as restaurants will only accept take-out and must not sell liquors during the lockdown.
The city government also ordered the temporary suspension of operation of all local tourism sites.
Work in private establishments and government agencies and offices are ordered to adopt a 50-percent workforce arrangement.
All contact sports are also prohibited while the operation of tricycles within the city proper will also continue.
Those who will violate the order will be pinned with penalties, which include facing criminal, civil, and administrative complaints about government officials and employees.
Office and business establishments owners will have to pay a PHP5,000 fine with a warning for the first offense and PHP5,000 fine with revocation of business permit for the second offense.
For individual violators, there is a fine of PHP3,000 for the first offense, PHP4,000 for the second offense, and PHP5,000 for the third offense and imprisonment of not more than 30 days.
The city was also placed under hard lockdown on the third week of August last year.
As of Jan. 17, Borongan City recorded 96 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 12 local cases recorded in the past three days.
The city’s official social media account has not provided records on the number of recoveries. (PNA)
