The City of San Carlos in Negros Occidental has indefinitely prohibited non-essential travel among its residents starting this week amid the rising cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the province’s northernmost locality.

The directive is stated in Executive Order 227 issued by Mayor Renato Gustilo, which was posted on the city government’s official Facebook page on Tuesday.

“(T)o contain the spread of the dreaded virus, it is the policy of San Carlos City to ban non-essential travels. Citizens are enjoined to stay home except for front-liners, and for purposes of accessing basic needs and for emergency medical needs,” the order read.

With the issuance of EO 227, the city government also suspended the issuance of certification for travel to places outside of San Carlos except for essential and emergency medical needs.

In the case of non-residents, they can only enter the city for the purpose of delivering food, essential supplies and services, following health and safety protocols, as well as for essential transactions and accessing medical services.

Being part of the jurisdiction of Negros Occidental, San Carlos is under a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

In the EO, Gustilo noted that in the case of San Carlos, the rise of Covid-19 cases was caused by the influx of locally stranded individuals coming home from areas where local transmission is very alarming.

“Just recently, cases of local transmission in the city were reported and should this trend continue, the local health system might not be able to cater to patients with positive cases and government and private hospitals have already refused admissions of patients due to influx of serious cases of Covid-19,” he said.

This led the Incident Management Team to recommend border restrictions on certain activities and regulate the movements of residents to curb virus infections and to contain the spread of the contagion in the city, Gustilo said.

As of Monday, San Carlos has 138 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 55 recoveries, 79 active cases, and four deaths. (PNA)